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Presented to 

tEhe ICthrarg 

of the 

Ptttucrsttu of ®onmto 

by 

Mrs. 7;ric E. Ryerson 



> 



THE WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE 

October, 1903, to March, 1904 






THE 



WIDE WORLD 



th 



MAGAZINE 



AN ILLUSTRATED 




MONTHLY 




OF 




TRUE NARRATIVE 




ADVENTURE 
TRAVEL 
■ CUSTOMS 

AND 

SPORT 


"TRUTH IS 
STRANGER 
THAN 




FICTION" 


Vol. XII. 




OCTOBER 


• 


1903, 




TO 

MARCH 

1904 


LONDON. 

GEORGE NEIVNES, LTD, 
SOUTHAMPTON ST. 
STRAND 






/•4.S-&- 




•WITH CKLESSNESS THEY FIRED RIGHT AND 1.1 I ! 

(SEK PAGE 6.) 






The Wide World Magazine. 



Vol. XII 



NOVEMBER, 1903. 



No. 67. 




&• 



The story of a highway robbery unique even in the annals of the West. In the 
early hours of a Saturday night an electric tram - car was held up in the 
populous city of Los Angeles by three masked robbers. Enraged by the resistance 
of a passenger, the miscreants opened fire on the occupants, killing one and 
wounding several more. Then they disappeared, and from that day to this no 
clue has been obtained as to their identity. 




DRAMATIC and desperate deed 
of outlawry, unparalleled even in 
the lurid criminal annals of Far 
Western America, was committed in 
Los Angeles, Southern California, 
on March 21st last. At the south-western 
boundary of the famous "City of the Angels," 
during the early hours of a Saturday night, a 
heavily-laden electric tram-car bound for the 
seashore town of Santa Monica was stopped by 
an obstruction on the track and boarded by 
three masked and heavily-armed desperadoes. 
One armed passenger fired upon the chief of 
the criminal trio, precipitating a veritable 
fusillade by the highwaymen. From the rear 
door the frustrated villains wreaked vengeance 
upon the helpless passengers, emptying their 
revolvers upon the backs of the people as they 
sat with upstretched hands. 

Vol. Ml.— 1. 



When they had exhausted their ammunition 
the scoundrels fled into the darkness without 
attempting to secure any booty. Mystery sur- 
rounds the escape, for one of the most strenuous 
and exhaustive man-hunts ever conducted in the 
West has failed to yield so much as a single clue 
to their identity or whereabouts. They were young 
and desperate, and that is all that is known. 

The Los Angeles -Pacific electric line, on 
which the hold-up occurred, is one of a dozen 
inter-urban roads radiating from Los Angeles, 
and it stretches west from the city to the sea- 
coast, a distance of twenty-five miles. It is a 
double- track line, and the fact that cars pass 
each way every ten minutes would seem to 
preclude the possibility of a train-robbery with- 
out speedy discovery. Nevertheless, the car 
was detained for eight minutes, and the robbers 
got clear away. 



1111 WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE 




\ 63 left the centre of the city at 
;e of Conductor Fred M. 
.1 n d 
M o t o r- m a n 
' "urrin. 
and carrying 
about fifty p 

. male and 
female, none of 
them even think- 
_ 

the _ed 

m a • 

to the tr. 
• i in the 
P h h, 

only 
1 rated by wire 
!rom op 
•ad 
that point 

le and 
it for a 

■ 

: darkn- 
■ n this e 

at a Frolnl 



nearly a mile a 
minute. Suddenly 
the current was 
shut off, the air- 
brakes applied, 
and the wheels 
reversed. The 
car jolted and 
shuddered with 
the sudden re- 
duction of speed, 
and some of the 
passengers were 
thrown roughly 
forward out of 
their seats. 

The powerful 
arc head - light 
had revealed to 
the motor-man an 
obstruction on 
the line. Across 
the track lay a 
pile of debris 
nearly four feet 
high, consisting 
of a heavy box 
the sizeofa 
coffin, a large barrel, several planks, and an 
ordinary steel rail. The driver barely succeeded 



riioto. 




T HE HOLD-UP— THE X 



ON THE TRACK SHOWS THE EXACT SPOT WHERE THE CAR 

WAS STOPPED. [Photo. 



A TRAM-CAR HOLD-UP. 



in bringing the car to a standstill before running 
upon the barricade. It may have been the 
heinous design of the highwaymen to wreck the 
swiftly-moving coach and in the confusion and 
darkness to loot the victims, living or dead. 
Many would doubtless have been killed in the 
crash had not the motor-man seen the formid- 
able obstruction. 

The moment the car stopped a man sprang 
out of the darkness in front, revolver in hand. 

"Throw up your hands!" he yelled, at the 
top of his voice. " Put up your hands, every 
one of you ! " He emphasized his ominous 
command with a perfect torrent of imprecations. 

He was standing on the ground, and as he 
shouted he waved his huge weapon backward 
and forward along the length of the coach 
with a sweeping motion. He was a short 
young fellow, of athletic build, in rough attire. 
His face was completely hidden from forehead 
to chin by a black handkerchief, with slits cut 
for the eyes and mouth. 

The robber leader confronted half-a-dozen 
men, who were occupying the open-air seats at 
the front of the car. (The photograph shows 
the car reversed.) Inside sat over forty other 
passengers, half of whom were women. All eyes 
were fixed on the bandit in front, and those 
inside did not raise their hands in obedience to 
the distant command. They were roused from 
their feeling of comparative security with a 
start, by shouts coming from behind. Two 
other masked robbers had quietly taken up a 
position at the rear doorway, and quickly 
repeated their chiefs orders to those inside. 
The brigands at the rear seemed to be mere 
boys in voice and physique, and their faces were 
hidden with white eyeletted handkerchiefs. 

With horrible threats of death they called to 
the passengers to put up their hands and sit 
absolutely still. They stretched their revolvers 
into the car at arms' length and promised to 
shoot on the first move made by any person. 

The passengers inside were completely 
terrorized by the suddenness of the occurrence, 
and they obeyed the commands with alacrity. 
Eighty arms were stretched high, and the people 
sat motionless, wailing to be relieved of their 
valuables. The conductor, who was standing 
just inside the front door when the car stopped, 
shouted "It's a hold-up!" Then he dropped 
into a seat and threw off his uniform, in order to 
escape being made the principal object of attack 
by the desperadoes. The motor-man at the 
front squatted on the floor at the first onslaught, 
and sat holding his stool before his face as a 
shield against the expected bullets. 

Two of the six passengers on the open seats 
in front did not put up their hands. These two 



men were instrumental in bringing about the 
fatal fusillade which quickly followed. One of 
them was intoxicated ; the other decided to 
show fight. 

The robber leader kept up his stream of 
commands and threats from his position on the 
ground, but they had no effect upon one young 
man sitting directly in front of him and but 
three feet away. This young fellow was in a 
drunken stupor and sat facing the bandit, with 
a maudlin, smiling stare. He did not realize 
what was going on. The desperado stood for a 
moment nonplussed and undecided. Then he 
stepped forward with revolver raised, grasped 
the upright car-handle with his free hand, and 
swung up on the footboard. Leaning over the 
tardy one the impatient robber bawled out, 
almost in his ear, "Why don't you get your 
hands up ? " Still the stupefied youth made no 
move, and he might have paid the penalty of 
his indifference then and there, had it not been 
for the intervention which proved so disastrous 
to others. 

Seated on the outside near the outlaw leader 
was a man of huge physical proportions and 
stout heart — Charles A. Henderson, treasurer 
of a large contracting firm in Los Angeles He 
had also refused to raise his hands, and at the 
first command prepared to fight. The robber's 
dispute with the inebriated man gave him time 
to gather his wits and extricate his revolver from 
his ulster. As the desperado stepped aboard the 
car Henderson turned and fired at him point- 
blank. 

The bullet missed its mark, but instantly 
brought a return from the robber, As fast 
as they could pull the triggers the two men 
blazed away at each other. They were but six 
feet apart, and only their frantic haste in shoot 
ing accounted for neither man being killed As 
he fired, the desperado stepped backward off 
the car, and as the last shot rang out he had 
regained the ground and found shelter in the 
darkness. The robber had fired four times, and 
from the manner of his retreat many of the 
passengers believed him to have been wounded 
It is not yet settled that he was not hit 
Henderson's fifth cartridge failed to explode, and, 
finding himself helpless, he leaped from the car 
and ran pell-mell into the fields for safety. 

Racing across a vineyard in the darkness, 
expecting pursuit, Henderson ran plump into a 
barbed-wire fence and was thrown violently to 
the ground. He was frightened and dazed, but 
when he came to his senses he noticed a 
carriage drawn by a white horse, tied to a post 
but .twenty feet away. The vehicle was empty, 
and had evidently borne the bandits to the 
scene. Henderson feared a lurking confederate 



1'Hl W1IM WORLD MAGAZINE. 



he again took 
i is i ai was the 

the identity of the 
and the police hunted 
it. 
: ut< 3 jotne tragic 
d inside the car. The 
duel tforni was the signal 

the two villains at the rear 
ince on the innocent 
rhe pa- - sat helplessly, 

in the air and their backs to 
The majority seemed almost 
ind remained motionless. A 
i ii their seats in a Foolish hope 
• of the chairs would serve 
jperadoes' bullets. 
• chief first 
in 
■ 

• _ :t'ul 
■miit later 
th( ir \\Mrk 
5 

in 1 
way they 
training 

down 

; he 

that the 

• - bun 

nd supple 

With 

nd 
fury 

nany sh< re fired that, 

had any particular aim been taken, more than 

by the bullets would 
ha\ 

oul att from beneath 

er< '■ mpor 

. and sat patiently and 

1 moaned or 

I unintelligibly under tip of the 

ter- :it. arly all the twenty 

in a perfe< t agony of 

nd their ; i ould be heard 

he din. Four or five fainted, some sat 

groaning in a gave vent 

to I for men y. while others 

illy at the top of their lungs. 

Added to this, the continual cracking of the 




MR. liEOKGE A. GRISOWLD, PRESIDENT OF THE LEADING 
MANSON, IOWA, who WAS SHOT DEAD BY 
From a) THE ROBBERS. \PfwtO. 



revolvers in the small enclosure and the ripping 
and crashing o\ the bullets through woodwork 
and glass made a perfect pandemonium. 

Suddenly an elderly man dropped the hand 
that had been held high above his head to his 
side. It had been shot clean through, and the 

blood trickled down profusely. lie was a 
prominent physician of Los Angeles, Dr. C. H. 
Haines. Another man suddenly fell forward 
in his seat and then sank down lower with 
blanched face. He was shot diagonally through 
the thigh, and his blood streamed upon the 
floor. This was J. C. Cunningham, also of Los 
Angeles. Mis left leg was barely saved. E. T. 
Pierson, a young man of Sawtelle, gave one 
sharp cry of pain and pitched forward with a 
bullet through the groin. His wound nearly 

proved fatal, and he has 
not yet fully recovered. 

In the midst of the 
pandemonium an elderly 
woman turned about in 
her seat and gave a 
plaintive cry to her son, 
who sat across the aisle 
and one seat to the rear. 
"Oh, George," she 
pleaded, " why don't you 
hold up your hands?" 
Then after a second she 
added, " Do give them 
anything you have." 

The man addressed 
was the only one inside 
the car who had failed 
to obey the stem order. 
Regardless of the shoot- 
ing he was busilyengaged 
in hiding his valuables, 
in perfect self-possession. 
As his mother made her 
agonized appeal he was 
in the act of tucking a much-prized watch under 
his leg. The robbers evidently thought he was 
bring for a weapon and singled him out for 
killing. 1 lis mother's plea had scarcely been 
red when his head fell back. A bullet had 
struck him at the back of the neck and caused 
instant death. 

The murdered man was George A. Grisowld, 
president of the leading bank of Manson, Iowa, 
and a member of one of the most distinguished 
families in his State. He was but twenty-nine 
years of age, and was on his annual vacation 
tour to the Pacific Coast, in company with his 
mother and aunt, Miss Anna Funk, of Mount 
Morris, Illinois, who also witnessed the killing of 
her nephew. The poor mother was so ill after the 
tragedy that for days her life was despaired of. 



A TRAM-CAR HOLD-UP. 



When the two villains had emptied their 
revolvers they tarried for a moment to curse 
their victims, and then leaped from the car and 
disappeared in the darkness, to be seen no 
more. 

It was fully half a minute after the des- 
peradoes had fled before the passengers dared 
to move, and some were completely prostrated 
by the ordeal. Temporary relief was given the 
wounded, and then the journey was continued 
with all speed. The interior of the car furnished 
an eloquent account of the awful affair. The 
woodwork was shattered and splintered, and 
the windows and mirrors broken in all directions, 
while the floor was slippery with blood. 

Fred M. Meister, conductor of the ill-fated 
car No. 63, told in graphic style some of the 
details of the tragedy 
after it was over. Meister 
is a young man of good 
family who recently went 
to the Pacific Coast from 
New York City, and is 
an experienced and 
trusted railroad em- 
ploye. His life has been 
crowded with exciting 
experiences sufficient to 
make a book in them- 
selves, but he said that 
the Santa Monica hold- 
up was the most thrilling 
adventure he had ever 
had. 

"The events of that 
terrible quarter of an 
hour surpass the power 
of words to describe 
adequately," declared 
Mr. Meister. " The 
intensity of the excite- 
ment and terror had to 

be seen and felt to be realized. In battle a man 
has a chance to run or resist, and the excite- 
ment of fighting may make him forget the 
danger. But during that awful time we were 
compelled to sit with our backs to a pair of 
murderers, at close range, and wait for what 
seemed like certain death. 

" Nobody who went through the ordeal will 
ever be able to forget it. The shrieks of those 
agonized women ought to haunt the lives of the 
fiendish robbers for ever. The poor creatures 
suffered the pains of many deaths during that 
awful fusillade. One girl sank to her knees in 
a pool of blood and prayed, with the tears 
streaming down her cheeks. Several of the 
women were thrown into the most violent 
hysteiics, and were prostrated when it was all 




FRED M. MEISTER, THE CO 

From a] can 



over. The men were scarcely less frightened, 
but they remained motionless. 

" I saw all the three robbers, but I do not 
think I should be able to identify any one of 
them ; their faces were so effectually masked. 
They all seemed to be quite young fellows, 
especially the two who did the shooting from 
the rear. My idea is that they were dare-devil 
ranch hands. 

" From where I sat I had an excellent view 
of the duel on the front platform. I was just 
opening the front door to speak to the motor- 
man when the car began to slow down. I 
looked ahead and saw the pile of lumber on the 
track. As the car stopped I glanced down at 
the side, through the window, and saw the 
leader of the bandits standing back about ten 

feet. I then knew what 

was coming, and, calling 

out to the passengers 
that it was a hold-up, I 
turned and looked for 
a place to sit down. 
Looking back, I saw the 
two confederates stand- 
ing in the doorway. I 
stripped off my cap to 
conceal my identity as 
conductor, and got down 
low in the nearest seat. 

"Then the wild shoot- 
ing commenced. The 
firing was reckless, many 
of the shots going over 
our heads, one so high 
that it went through the 
roof. If they had taken 
any aim at all they 
would have hit at least a 
dozen people. As it was 
bullets passed through 
the clothing of two men 
and one woman without touching their flesh. 
I think they took deliberate aim at Mr. Grisowld, 
as he tried to hide his money, and they thought 
he was drawing a revolver. He was seated just 
behind me. 1 hope I may never have to endure 
such another eight minutes. It seemed like 
eight hours. " 

Though police officers in extraordinary force 
were sent to the scene and placed on guard 
around the vicinity, and though the subsequent 
quest was participated in by the ablest criminal- 
hunters of Western America, not so much as a 
clue has been secured as to the perpetrators. 
A mystery that has completely baffled solution 
surrounds the identity of the murderous criminals 
and the manner of their escape. It is believed 
the meshes of the law will never hold them. 



NDUCTOR OK THE ILL-FATED 
NO. 63. . [Photo. 






1111. WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 




MR. C. H. AND THE 

1 a) INEJ). [Photo. 

nature of the crime and its 
me audacity aroused intense and wide- 
d public indignation, as it came at the 

noteworthy deeds 
:: ghway robber} i- punishable 
I liifomia. and the 
for the li\ 
he ruthless murderers. The 
State, the Hon. 
Pardee, the electric 
mpany, the mother of 
man, his busin 
and several high 
•1 extraordinarily 
• 'ards for the capture 
and f the despera- 

a mount 
r the arrest of the. 
thr- n thou- 

me of the 
ffered in the i 
State, but even this 
■lid not bring to light 

> the i en- 

shrouding the crim- icific 

- -:upstr timony 

a f On I 

fishing town of 1 



dondo a stroller, Mr. C. H. Penrose, came 
upon a large sealed glass bottle, which had 
been cast up by the waves. It contained a 
message, written on both sides of a crumpled 
piece ol wrapping paper. It read as follows: — 
• May i,:; th, 1903, off point north of San 
Pedro, with boat from Catahna owned by C. 
Reeves. I bid farewell to this world. I am 
tired of life, and may some day the truth of 
my life be found out. I was the one who held 
up the Santa Monica car. My pardnor went 
south. May the Lord forgive me for my Crime, 
and the Law protect him from the punishment 
which I should have. I led him to the act. 
( lood-bye ; be easy with him. 

(Signed) "Z. E. Gesiuf." 
Subsequent discoveries tended to confirm 
this implied announcement of a suicide in the 
channel between San Pedro and Santa Cata- 
lina Island. Shortly after the singular missive 
was found the corpse of a man, disfigured be- 
yond possibility of identification, was washed 
up on the shore near San Pedro. It was also 
ascertained that the Catalina boatman men- 
tioned had actually had a boat taken from its 
moorings at night about the date mentioned, 
the craft never being found. The name of 
"/. E. Gesiuf," however, does not appear in 
any of the directories, so that the mystery 
remains almost as deep as ever. 
Police and public alike are wondering whether 
the chief perpetrator of the heinous crime I have 
desoibed now occupies the nameless grave of 
the suicide, or is still living in freedom, un- 
punished for his villainous deed. 







THE REVERSE OF THE MESSAGE. 



{Photo 




£G\»\C.T?ou\Ves. rx. 




Fp fyr$maq. 



IV.— ALONG THE DALLUL MAURI. 

The continuation of Captain Foulkes' illustrated account of his experiences on a journey from 
London to the mysterious sacred city of Sokoto, and thence to Lake Tchad. This expedition, 
involving over two thousand miles of travel in regions hitherto quite unknown, should prove 
of unique interest, as the author was a member of the expedition which penetrated six hundred 
miles up the Niger and thence marched westward to Sokoto — a city which had previously been visited 
by only one Englishman, who went there many years ago in disguise, since when the treacherous and 

fanatical Fulani have refused the white man all access. 




N the 27th December we left Doli 
to march to Bei-bei, a large town on 
the Dallul Mauri, about one hun- 
dred miles from the Niger. A con- 
siderate amount of transport had 
been collected, and on our arrival we were 
informed that twenty camels and twice as many 
donkeys, with a few oxen, were all ready in 
camp at Kangakoi, a place ten miles away from 
the river, as the climate nearer the Niger was 
unsuitable for these animals. Pushing on with 
a small army of carriers, we reached this village 
late on the day following our disembarkation. 

At Kangakoi there was a good deal to be 
done in the way of distributing the various 
loads according to their suitability for camel, 
donkey, ox, or carrier transport ; this was 
satisfactorily arranged in the course of two or 
three hours. 

In the difficult and unknown country through 
which we were to pass the question of transport 
was all-important, and before proceeding with 
the account of our march I must say a few words 
about our carriers and transport animals. 

Vol. xii.— 2. 



Owing to the requirements of our French 
neighbours we found that camels — most useful 
animals for the work in hand — were difficult to 
obtain. Moreover, owing to the bad quality of 
the native saddles, the camels are only capable 



of taking 



three or four loads apiece, while the 
smaller ones can only carry two loads — still, 
they require little looking after, can march long 
distances over waterless country, and, on arriving 
in camp, only require to be hobbled and turned 
out to graze. 

The transport donkeys carry two loads apiece, 
one on either side, and the oxen a similar 
number. We had only three of the latter, and 
one of these proved so refractory with his load 
early in the first march that he had to be put to 
an entirely different use. 

With regard to the carriers available, these 
men, as may be supposed, vary very much in 
quality in different parts of West Africa. Pro- 
bably the best are the Mendis from Sierra 
Leone, who are extensively employed in many 
of our various military expeditions in this part 
of the world. Our present Hausa carriers, re- 






THE WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 




chiefly from the country round Ho, were 

ially in view of the lark of 

n the march and the difficulty of the 

h at this time of the year are deeply 

buri ;:id. 

They make picturesque figures, too, in their 

striking feature of their 

_ the charms, generally worn round 

ks • wi its as protection against fever, 

bullets, and so on. In addition they carry a 

ol water, or a pair of sandals 

»ulderwith strips of cloth, and 

nail bund ■ 

e the rest of 

their beloi 

on 
• 
'eturn to our 
After I 
Kangakoi our 
1 ran along the 
left. k of 

illul Mauri. 
- liter- 
ally, vail- the 
■ . trd 
•ion 
of 
to I 

aut. ;hal 



low depression, which was probably at 
one time, under different climatic con- 
ditions, the bed of a great river empty- 
ing into the Niger at Doli. 

The bed of the depression is some- 
times marshy and overgrown with tall, 
characteristic reed-like grass, and fan- 
palms arc very abundant in places, 
though the ground is for the most part 
sparsely wooded, even the baobab 
trees being comparatively few and 
d war lis 1 1. 

In places the track we were follow- 
ing was very ill-defined and difficult, 
but in others it consists of gently 
sloping banks, having in the rear lines 
of almost vertical cliffs from one to 
two hundred feet in height, perfectly 
flat on the top and covered with stunted 
bushes sufficiently far apart to allow of 
a horseman riding through in any 
direction. 

Between Bei-bei and the Niger 
villages were but few, but in the 
neighbourhood of Bei-bei, which is 
the centre of this district, the country 
is well populated. 
Of the various tribes we met the Arewas are 
perhaps the most prominent and warlike. The 
people generally are Pagan Hausas, on whom 
Mohammedanism has left little impression. They 
are in a constant state of war with each other 
and are divided up into factions or communities 
of villages, all of which are in constant fear of 
Fulani slave raids. The towns are invariably 
surrounded with strong timber stockades, which 
have a certain number of openings in them, and 
there is generally a ditch outside this line. 
Sometimes the stockades are made more than 



{Photo. 




A VIEW IN THE DRY BED OK THE DALI.UI. MAUKI. 



[Photo. 



WITH THE BRITISH TO SOKOTO. 



1 i 



ordinarily impenetrable by 
thorn - bushes being 
planted along and among 
the stakes. 

The road took us 
through the village of 
Banna, near which a 
second depression, similar 
to but smaller than Dallul 
Mauri, joins the latter. 
This second dry water- 
course is called the Rafin 
Fogha, which, being trans- 
lated, means the valley of 
salt. As in a part of the 
Dallul Mauri, salt work- 
ings exist all along it. 
At frequent intervals we 
came across these work- 
ings, which are easily 
located from the immense 
mounds of debris, on the 
tops of which are perched 
the hovels of the natives 
who carry on the in- 
dustry. 

The procedure is very primitive, and consists 
of collecting a quantity of impregnated earth 
and passing water through it ; this latter is 
caught underneath in earthenware pots and is 
then evaporated, the salt, a coarse, impure pro- 
duct, being left behind. Considerable attention 
was formerly directed to this trade, but of late 
years, owing no doubt to the disturbed state of 
the country, the output has much decreased. It 
is a curious thing that none of the country 
people seem to have any definite ideas as to 




From a] 



A NATIVE GAME AT A FRIENDLY VILLAGE. 



[I'/wto. 




From a\ the commencement of the overland march to sokoto. [Photo. 



where the Dallul Mauri originates, or even in 
what general direction it runs. In one place I 
was informed that it reunites with the Dallul 
Mauri at Tawa (a town near the French border, 
one hundred miles north of Sokoto) and then 
continues, via Maradi, as far as Katsena. 

The road we were following consisted of a 
rough sandy track through a parched country in 
which water is rarely found except in the village 
wells. The Harmattan wind, hot and dry, 
charged with fine sand, makes it impossible to 
see more than about half a mile 
ahead on many days of this season, 
and the obscurity of the atmos- 
phere is increased by smoke rising 
in ' rolling clouds from numbers of 
grass-fires, which seem to originate 
spontaneously in all directions, and 
which produce a glow in the sky 
throughout the night. 

There is very little close bush, 
and extensive sandy patches are 
to be seen bare of vegetation or 
showing signs by their blackened 
surface of recent bush-fires. 

Very rarely a water-hole is passed 
near the road a few inches deep, 
the water from which — a muddy, 
brackish liquid — is eagerly scooped 
up and soon exhausted by thirsty 
carriers. The wells in the villages 
are often one hundred feet and 
more in depth, the upper fifteen 



11 IK WIDE WORl l> MAGAZINE. 




■ (1 and the excavation tapering 

Fhe water is drawn by means 

skin, and sometimes a 

animals is to be seen close by, 

"Ut of a single tree trunk, like a 

Guinea corn fields, often of 

i, are found near and round 

. small extent of ground is also 

thin the stockade; occasionally one 

;tch of indigo cultivation or a small 

r melons, the latter carefully fenced 

gi is matti - 

• the towns we found peaceably dis- 

1 on our approach streams 

:.. . women, and children — came 

ying calabashes 

full und-up guinea-corn, the 

• of the country. The 
dmen, too, g \ assistance 

and provided extra carriers when 

ir march tamp 
lly roused by 

2 a.m., 
hour the 
d 
up an 

- little i 

The 
d on 
with t: 

r of the 
ing about day- 

illy, on our arrival 

rapidly run 
mmodation, 

.. . and milk 



collected, the latter from neighbouring " Cow- 
Fulanis," or travelling herdsmen, who have 
established a recognised position for themselves 
in the country. Soon after halting for the day 
the soldiers of the escort are sent out with a 
number of carriers to cut wood, with which a 
zareba is built round the camp. 

The latter presents a busy scene towards 
dusk. The night-guard is mounted and sentries 
are posted, partly as a precautionary measure, 
but chiefly to watch the animals and to guard 
against desertion among the carriers at night. 
Smoke rises from scores of wood-fires, round 
which men squat, half-naked and in groups, 
dipping for their food out of a single calabash 
with their fingers ; close by the donkeys are 
tethered in lines, and beyond them is a 
group of camels pegged to the ground and 
reclining in quaint attitudes, chewing medi- 
tatively from a pile of grass leaves or 




THE BRITISH COMMISSIONERS TENT. 



[PJwto. 



WITH THE BRITISH TO SOKOTO. 



'3 



creepers collected and thrown down in front 
of them. 

Seen from a little distance away (we generally 
slept under a big tree near the zareba) a haze of 
light seemed to hang over everything, against 
which the figures of the sentries were silhouetted, 
their bayonets glancing as they paced to and fro 
on their beat. 

Gradually the braying of the donkeys and the 
weird groanings of the camels ceased and the 
subdued chattering from the firesides almost 
died away, the silence only being broken by 
the call at regular intervals throughout the 
night : "No. 3— All's well ! No. 2— All's well ! 
Corporal of the guard — All's well ! " Then, 



were counted in the town itself, of which 
number about thirty fell round the breach in 
the stockade whilst resisting the actual entry 
into the town. In spite of this example, 
another group of villages with the Seriki of 
Lidu at their head were now behaving in a 
precisely similar manner, their depredations 
being committed chiefly against the inhabitants 
of the district owing allegiance to Bei-bei. 
The king of the latter place had always been 
friendly towards us, ever since the earliest 
occupation of the country, and in this he 
displayed his foresight. 

Rumours of these troubles began to reach 
us at about the time of our arrival at Yellu, 




From a] 



BUILDING A ZAREBA ROUND THE CAMP. 



[P/lOtO. 



after a pause, " All right ! " in a muffled voice 
from under a blanket. 

A few weeks before our arrival in the country 
severe measures had been taken by the military 
commandant at Argungo (the administrative 
centre) with a village called Giwai, which is 
situated about six miles from Bei-bei, and 
against the people — of whom frequent com- 
plaints had been made in the past — for slave- 
raiding, cattle-stealing, etc. A column consisting 
of fifty men, under a lieutenant and a white 
non-commissioned officer, with a seventy-five 
millimetre gun, had shelled the stockade and, 
after effecting a breach, had stormed the place 
amidst showers of poisoned arrows shot at close 
range. 

After a stiff fight the village was taken and 
burnt. The nature of the resistance can be 
judged from the fact that over a hundred dead 



which is close to Lidu, but is situated on the 
opposite bank of the Dallul Mauri. One 
evening a messenger arrived, saying that a big 
battle had just been fought between Bei-bei 
and Lidu, in which the latter had lost ninety- 
seven killed. This news, however, proved later 
to be false, or, at any rate, grossly exaggerated. 
Some of the hamlets which we passed were 
found deserted, the reason given for this being 
that all the people were going on to Lidu, where 
preparations were being made for a big " war 
palaver." At Goro, twenty miles from Bei-bei, 
we were met by a small army of fighting men 
sent by the friendly chief to welcome us. A- 
number of horsemen, armed with sword and 
spear and carrying shields of raw hide, galloped 
along the road towards us, and on arriving at a 
distance of a few paces reined up suddenly, at 
the same time raising their spears in their right 






THE WIDE IVOR] H MAGAZINE, 
he head 



in 



i the 

h military expedi- 

much trouble, 

ip in with loud 

I pulling up 



eighteen inches long, bent downwards to the front 
and rear, with sharpened edges. Riding-boots 
are made o\ soft, will prepared leather, usually 
dyed red . they reach as far as the knee, and 
are continued in front along the thigh up to 
the waist, as a protection to the leg from thorns 
when riding among hushes. The soles are soft 



m 



w> 




*6 



. 



TRIBESMEN DRAWN LI' IN FIGHTING ARRAY IN HONOUR OF THE VISITORS. 



\Photo. 



simultaneously roll their eyes upwards, and 
ver backwards clash their shields on 
the ground. 

:i the day a military display was given 

■ur honour on the plain outside (ioro, in 

two hundn d ol the Bei bei fighting 

part Half this force consisted of 

i, each armed with a how and a quiver 

d arrow - Some had, in 

addition, s; rid others swords, whilst two 

with drums slung under the arm, 

■finite signals of advance and 

of the horsemen carried bows. 

are primitive and consist of a 

native woven coloured cloths ; they are 

1 with a high pommel before as well 

ind the rider. Chains are often placed 

: hor i are usually tied round their 

: they are even to be found plaited into 

their tails. 

The riders have very little consideration for 

•f which are sturdy little 

endurance; they are not deficient 

. and 1 have known two or three 

mounted men ride down and kill a full-grown 

;>e with their swords. 

times sees great sores on the ponies' 

. and the bits used are narrow 

stirrup-irons are quaintly 

sha: ,n in which the foot rests 

being three or four inches wide and twelve to 



also ; sandals are generally worn over them when 
walking. 

When we arrived on the review ground the 
dismounted contingent was drawn up in single 
line some twenty paces in front of the horse- 
men, this being the ordinary fighting formation. 
After we had passed along the line and tested 
the range of the bows (which we found to be 
about one hundred yards) preparations were 
made for a cavalry charge. 

The archers withdrew to either flank, a word 
of command was given by one of the white- 
robed leaders, and the whole of the mounted 
men at once dashed forward towards us at the 
gallop. 

This movement provided a most effective 
spectacle. Above the thunder of hoofs the 
clatter of spears on shields could plainly be 
heard ; the horsemen, their many-coloured gar- 
ments floating in the wind, advanced at the top 
of their speed whilst making the best use of 
their spurs, followed closely by a dense rolling 
cloud of dust. At a distance of about ten 
paces they all pulled up suddenly and, raising 
their right hands in the air towards us, spears 
clenched, shouted out simultaneously in salute. 

Shortly afterwards a bull was led out from 
one of the town gates and allowed to gallop 
away over the plain. When it had taken a good 
start three horsemen spurred out from the line 
after it, and, on approaching it, from consider- 
able distance and at remarkable angles, threw 



WITH THE BRITISH TO SOKOTO. 



iS 



their spears into it with wonderful accuracy, 
while going at full speed. One of them then 
drew his sword and hamstrung it when still at 
the gallop, soon after which it was put out of 
pain. 

That same evening a message was brought in 
to the effect that the inhabitants of Gisamo, a 
village two miles farther on, intended to kill the 
white men when the latter reached their town 
the following day. 

The Bei-bei road passes close under the 
Gisamo stockade, and on our arrival at this spot 
early the next morning (the majority of our con- 
voy having already gone on without opposition) 
we found the stockade unoccupied and the 
town deserted. Three or four hundred yards 
in the rear, however, the whole of the Gisamo 
fighting men. numbering about two hundred 
and fifty (of whom perhaps forty were mounted), 
were drawn up in battle array, in a precisely 
similar manner to the Bei-bei people at Goro, 
excepting that longer intervals were kept. On 



and on the arrival of the remainder of the 
column from Argungu the whole force, con- 
sisting of one hundred and forty men, as many 
ammunition- bearers and gun - carriers, with a 
millimetre gun (which is designed for man 
transport), set out for Lidu. 

Considerable opposition was expected, as 
Lidu is a large town and the remnants of the 
Giwai people as well as the inhabitants of many 
of the surrounding villages were reported to have 
collected there. However, no fight took place : 
a number of horsemen advanced towards the 
column with the usual hubbub, but on realizing 
the number of the troops they turned round 
and fled. A few were shot, and the town was, 
entered and burnt. 

Many Bei-bei horsemen who had followed 
the troops out of sight took advantage of the 
situation to acquire slaves and cattle, and were 
at an apparent loss to understand the reason a 
few days later when their town was searched 
and restitution was insisted on being made. 




A CORNER OF THE CAMP, SHOWING A BRITISH OFFICERS GRASS SHELTER ON THE LEFT. 

From a Photo. 



the hills behind them, too, look-out men were 
posted, and single horsemen cantered along the 
lines when we were first sighted. 

After seeing all the carriers past we rode 
forward with the twelve men composing the 
rear-guard of the escort, but this proved to be 
too 'much for the courage of our opponents, 
who retired into the bushes and broken ground 
at the foot of the cliffs. 

At Bei-bei we found a concentration taking 
place of the troops forming the Argungu 
column of which the forty men of our escort 
were part. It had been decided to attack Lidu, 



The condition of the whole of this part of the 
Western Soudan is at present very unsettled. 
Slave-raiding is a universal practice, and there 
is little security for life or property outside the 
stockaded towns ; indeed, no one goes far from 
their gates without carrying bows and spears. 
Such a state of affairs cannot be altered all at 
once, however, but there is little doubt that, with 
the adjustment of the Anglo-French boundary 
and the effective occupation of the countries on 
both sides of it, order will gradually be restored 
and a state of peace established unknown in the 
memory of the oldest of the present inhabitants. 



(To be cotifitiited.) 



A Motor-Car Caravan in Algeria. 

r,\ i in Vis< oi n i in Soissons. 

The adventures which befell three well-known French automobilists who organized a motor-car 
ss Algeria and .1 portion of the Sahara. Their experiences ranged from a sharp brush 
with brigands to a sandstorm in the desert. 




SHORT time ago three chauffeurs, 

all well known in the Parisian 

motoring world Messieurs Etienne 

tetan d< Mi. mine, and 

Chauchard- organized an ambitious 

. ria with a "caravan" of motor- 

v left Algiers early one morning, 

although not without trouble, for the rough se.is 

in t terranean had inundated two of the 

and it was no easy matter to get them in 

Lgain. 

The first two days of the journey passed 

'lit incident until after leaving Palestro, and 

they were 

gl e wild 

mountain region 

as the 

Kabylia. 

their atten- 

was arrested 

harp clatter 

on the stony 

i behind 

them. looking 

rou: 

Arab 

n dart 

■ irner 

and urge their 

;fter the 

guide, 

name 

el - 

rror when he saw them. 

" they are robbers, 

:r gold and your weapons, and also after 

the cars was accordingly in 
- ■; _■ distance between 
I n-Haffar, the head 
le of the rifles 
and the first rie HafTar was 

i-:sman, but just as he fired the motor- 
car I round a bend and he only man.: 
■ it the I bernous 



■ 




*: • "' 


JU 




* - 

■ 
— 






II 



THE START OF THE MOTOR-CARS 

From 



The pursuers immediately fired a volley in 
reply, but the bullets from their old-fashioned 
wheel-lock muskets all fell short. One alone — 
the man at whom Ben-Haffar had fired — had a 
good gun and knew how to use it. Three shots 
whistled round the guide's head from the 
brigand's rifle; one pierced his bemouse at a 
little distance from th# head, the second 
embedded itself in the butt of his yataghan, 
and the third hit the panel behind which he 
was crouching. Then came Ben-Haffar's 
turn, and every one of the five bullets in his 
magazine found its billet, leaving horse and 

rider in a heap 
on the road. 

Two minutes 
later, to the tra- 
vellers' astonish- 
ment, the pur- 
s u i n g A r a b s 
swerved to the 
left and dis- 
appeared, as 
though relin- 
quishing the 
chase. Kaban- 
el-Harosh, how- 
ever, compre- 
hended the real 
meaning of the 
manoeuvre. 

" ' Faster, 
faster," he yelled, 
" we must pass 
the next path that leads into the road before 
they reach it by the short cut they have taken." 
The chauffeurs set their teeth as the motors 
dashed at breakneck speed over the bumpy road. 
Once, as they passed over a very high part, they 
saw on the plateau, a little below them, the 
Arabs, who were now ahead of them. An 
anxious moment of suspense came when they 
neared the danger spot, and then, just as the last 
car passed the path, four of the Arabs dashed 
out at headlong speed. 

M. de Meaulne promptly dropped three of 



ON THEIR JOIRNKY ACROSS ALGERIA. 
a Photo. 



A MOTOR CAR CARAVAN IN ALGERIA. 



17 




THE FOURTH IMPRUDENTLY ENGAGED STEEL WITH DEN-HAFFAR. 



them with his revolver, and the fourth im- 
prudently engaged steel with Ben-Haffar, a 
splendid swordsman, who from the car laid his 
head open with one sweep of his sharp scimitar. 

The other rohbers followed the cars for ten 
minutes more, firing intermittently, and then 
retired with the loss of several of their number. 
On the other side two Arabs and M. de Meaulne 
were slightly wounded by jezail bullets. 

The motorists reached the town of Dra-el- 
Mizan fairly late, but only stopped there until 
early morning, when they entered the mountain 
country. It was hard work for the cars, being 
nearly all uphill, and the party had to be very 
careful not to lose the road to the El-Kantara 
pass. 

The cars were working slowly up a hill when 
suddenly the watchful eyes of M. de Meaulne 
perceived, over the edge of a precipice above 
them, the face of a man, and under it the barrel 
of a rifle pointed at the head of one of the 
guides. In a moment it flashed across his 
mind that this particular guide had been out- 
lawed by his tribe, who had sworn to kill him 
whenever he crossed their path. M. de Meaulne 
therefore picked up his rifle and fired without 
hesitation, placing a bullet in the man's head. 
He was too late to save the guide, however, for 

Vol. xii.— 3. 



the stranger fired 
at the same time 
as he did, and 
two bodies fell at 
once. 

The assassin, 
struck in the 
temple, toppled 
down just as 
poor Kaban-el- 
Harosh cried 
with his last 
breath : — 

" I am done ! 
They have found 
me out and ful- 
filled their oath." 
This tragedy, 
enacted in such 
a short space of 
1 1 m e, made a 
great impression 
on the party, and, 
taken in connec- 
tion with the 
brigand episode, 
brought home to 
them vividly the 
dangers of the 
trip they had 
undertaken. 
Having disposed of the bodies as well as 
possible, the motorists continued their journey. 
An hour later, the heat becoming greater, they 
stopped again and pitched the tent which they 
carried with them. At the altitude at which 
they were now, however, the heat does not last 
long, and before they restarted Ben-Haffar pro- 
posed a wild-sheep hunt. M. de Meaulne and 
M. Girand accordingly went out with him, and 
after some time, from the top of a shelving 
bank, perceived about two dozen sheep and 
three rams. 

Unluckily M. Girand slipped and rolled a 
pebble down the slope, which sent the sheep 
flying helter-skelter in all directions. The Arab 
and M. de Meaulne brought down two with 
their repeaters, and would have hit more had it 
not been for the fact that the three rams caused 
a diversion by charging the hunters with their 
heads well down. The charge was so entirely 
unexpected that all the men forgot to fire 
except M. Girand, who was smarting under 
the shame of not having killed anything. 
His bullet struck one of the rams, who fell in 
his tracks. Triumphant, the hunter seated 
himself on the prostrate animal and cried out 
laughingly : — 

" Well, my friends, who has made the best 






Till Ull'l WORM) MAGAZINE. 



\ 



their fallen comrade 



killed . 

Help! help:" 

\- if by magic the 

and bounded off, 

M. Girand on his 

ce, and then 

buck. Sremg the 

I his m« rcy, the. ram 

s, and would haw gone 

b killed the infuriated animal 

■ 

with 

Arab 
: — 
ill Nit 

■• ?" 
M. < his 

. 

•• 1 tho 

inned him. They 
.ilk these 
ut not thick 
enoi:- 

And the .' 3 to 

gain. 
When the merriment 
hn<: ied the game 

the bun 
and the party 
back to the camp. 
nearly 1 

ling the 
. when M. < iirand 
ked mournfully: "The 
will laugh at me 

. who was 
le little distance in 
front, overheard him and 
. in an 
ne : — 

lui'kly. r 

11 hidden ; we will yet laugh at them." 

It nt that Ben-Haffar had seen 

• _ ahead, and so they cautiously crept 

"h<j Arab was crouching. 

n there tl. the whole camp, 

1 the low ledge, in 

the nt was pitched, was a 

flicking away the flies ! He 

1 by the smell of the supper, 

ed craned his neck in 

an a:.. .each a bag of biscuits hanging 



from one oi' the corners of the flat-topped 
Arabian tent. 

•• Now. nis. be quick and steady ! Fire twice 
at his back." said the Arab ; and M. de Meaulne, 
acting on the advice, sent two bullets into the 
bear's bark, tumbling it right through the top 
of the tent. 

In a moment the camp was in an uproar and 
the sleepers in the tent were rudely awakened. 
The bear, which was only wounded, rushed at 
M. Chauchard and tried to hug him. Weapon- 
less and only half awake, the unfortunate man 




THE UNFORTUNATE MAN CLAMBERED DESPERATELY IP A CLIFF. 



clambered desperately up a cliff, closely followed 
by the enraged bear, who had already torn his 
clothes. The game was going too far, and so 
the three practical jokers ran down and put an 
end to the bear, to the vast relief of the 
frightened Chauchard. 

As everyone thought there had been enough 
hunting, the travellers left again after having 
done their best to patch up the battered tent. 
It was decided that, as M. de Meaulne was the 
man who had shot at the bear, it should be his 



A MOTOR-CAR CARAVAN IN ALGERIA. 



•9 



place in future to sleep under the hole caused 
by the fall of that animal. 

That day they travelled late into the night, 
and then only stopped for a couple of hours, as 
they wished to reach the pass of El-Kantara 
before the great heat of midday came on. 
Before nine o'clock the engines were as hot as 
fire, through lack of water in the cooling pipes. 
This is only too frequently the great drawback 
in long motor journeys across big stretches of 
country. In spite of this, however, the cars 
were pushed on. When they reached the pass 
the party found there a young Arab chief with 
some fifty men. He informed the travellers 
that his name was Abder-Ali-Bey, and that by 
order of the Government he was trying to 
exterminate a tribe of roving robbers. They 
told him of the men who had chased them and 
of the death of the guide. He frowned at the 
news and then said : — 

" I did not know that they had gone so near 
to the towns. As to the guide, I knew him, for 
he was a useful man. Of course, you know his 
story ? He was one of the tribe, but he did not 
like the robbing, and so left them. He has 
now met with the punishment they promised 
him." He paused 
and then con- 
tinued : " Before 
long they shall feel 
the weight of my 
sword, and then I 
think it will be a 
long time before 
the tribe of El- 
Gam will rob 
again. 1 ' 

The chauffeurs 
conversed with this 
brigand - hunter 
until the arrival of 
the rest of his 
detachment, when 
he escorted them 
five miles on their 
way. Here they 
separated, he going 
off on his mission 
of extermination, 
and the travellers 
continuing on their 
way to Aumale, 
where they were to 
hunt the gazelle. 

At Aumale they 
put up at the house 
of the Sheik, and 
expressed their 
desire to hunt the 



fleet-footed gazelles, for which Aumale and its 
environs are renowned throughout Algeria. 
They rose at eight next morning and, after 
breakfast, were provided with horses and 
rode off, together with some thirty Arabs and 
the men who led the dogs. Soon they were all 
tearing along after a pair of gazelles, who had 
just over half a mile start of them. The horses 
supplied by the Sheik were of the best Arab 
breed, and took ditches of astonishing width. 

The best part of the hunt came at half-past 
eleven, when, having already caught half-a-dozen 
gazelles, they started two bucks and six roes, all 
of a bunch, who threatened to give a long chase. 
The horses, however, had not lost their wind in 
the least, and followed the eight deer gamely. 
After half an hour's chase the field tailed out, 
and there were only our three travellers, the 
Sheik, and two of his friends still following the 
game. Presently the deer jumped over a broad 
chasm and slackened their speed a little, 
apparently thinking this would be an effectual 
barrier to their pursuers. Three of the horses 
refused to jump the gully, and the dogs gave it 
up entirely, but the three others jumped and 
landed safely, with the exception of M. de 




HIS HORSE LANDED ON HIS FOREFEET ONLY. 






III1. WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 




1/1FROV. 



\Pkoto. 



His horse landed on his forefeet 

nd fell down the precipice, but its rider 

mble clear as he felt the 

animal slipping backward. The 

ik and M. C1i.uk hard, who negotiated the 

h brought back a deer, but 

irned o\cr the chasm by a bridge half a 

wn, |V>r it was a jump not to be taken 

! party got back to the town shortly 

-wards, and at five o'clock on the same 

the indefatigable automobilists left for 

.Mara. 

Saint-Mara they forded the river without 

nt and went safely on to Guifroy, where, to 

their annoyance, a wheel in M. C'hauchard's car 

I wron.: two Arab guides wereaccord- 

ruested to procure a couple of mules to 



pull the car to the hotel at which they intended 
to stop until the next morning. The mules were 
brought and were about to be harnessed into the 
car when one of them heard the regular " teuf, 
teuf," o( M. Girand's car, as he started it. The 
sounds tly displeased the animal, for he 

turned round, pulling his owner with him, came 
near to the displeasing motor, and aimed furious 
kicks at it with his hind legs. Only one kick, 
however, reached the panel at which it was 
aimed, for Ben-Haffar promptly smothered the 
mule's head in a bernouse and led it away, still 
uttering angry squeals and kicking viciously. 




HOT EN ROUTE. 







/USE 
' hi: a Photo. 



I IT AWAY 



On the morning of the third day 
after leaving Aumale the chauffeurs 
entered on their voyage across the 
Sahara proper. Once they passed 
close to a camp of Bedouins. The 
women and children ran into the 
tents at the sound and sight of the 
strange monsters, but the men did 
not move from the rugs on which 
they were reclining, only reaching 
out their hands involuntarily to- 
wards the swords that lay by their 
sides. One young giant, knowing 
what he could do with ordinary 
vehicles, playfully seized hold of 
the back wheel of one of the slow- 
moving cars with the intention of 
stopping it, and his fist would have 
been drawn down and crushed 
had not M. Chauchard quickly 
reversed his engine. The Arab 



A MOTOR-CAR CARAVAN IN ALGERIA. 



21 



Hercules smiled his thanks and then courteously 
invited them to partake of bread and salt. 

Knowing that it would be a deadly insult to 
refuse, M. Chauchard stopped, calling on his 
friends to do the same. To their annoyance — 
for it was the best part of the day for travelling— 
they were detained for two hours by the hospit- 
able Arabs. When at last they managed to get 
away they hurried on towards the village where 
they intended to put up. The powerful Gard- 
ner-Serpollet cars ploughed heavily through 
the sand with their fast-revolving wheels, for 
although the engines were at full pressure the 
cars only went at half speed owing to the yield- 
ing nature of the ground. The smallest car 
could not go up some of the steep mounds of 
shifting sand that accumulate in the desert, 
and the larger ones therefore had to pull it up. 

They went steadily on without interruption 
until, to their astonishment, a puff of wind sent 
the fine sand flying in all directions. The auto- 



sand-storm which will presently be raging. You 
must cover the cars with the wraps to make 
a tent to protect your heads, for you will 
need it ! " 

For a moment the -chauffeurs felt inclined to 
disregard the old man and push on, but seeing 
the sand beginning to fly about in odd little 
whirlpools they decided to take his advice. 
The cars were accordingly placed in a hollow 
square under the shelter of a dune, and the top 
covered with car-rugs and blankets, thus forming 
a kind of square tent. These preparations 
made, they went to the top of the hill which 
sheltered them to see the approach of the sand- 
storm. 

First there came a slight breeze, which ran 
close along the ground, raising miniature whirl- 
winds in the sand as it came. Then, far away, 
they saw a sweeping mass of sand covering 
earth and sky, and looking not unlike a tidal 
wave. It struck them before they could escape, 




THEY HAD ONLY JUST SUFFICIENT STRENGTH TO DRAW THEMSELVES TO THE SHELTER OF THEIR SOUARE 



mobilists hastily put on their goggles to protect 
themselves against the minute grains, and were 
continuing on their way, when the guide warned 
them. 

" Take care, reis," he said to M. de Meaulne, 
in whose car he was sitting ; " I know the ways 
of the desert, on which I was born and bred, 
and I advise you to get under the shelter of a 
hill to protect you against the full force of the 



and threw them down, bruised and half-stunned, 
so that they had only just sufficient strength to 
draw themselves to the shelter of their square 
before the main wave of the storm struck them, 
blotting out the daylight and covering every- 
thing deep in driven sand. In seven minutes, 
however, all was over, and they had just begun 
to clear the sand away from the cars when the 
Arab cried out : — 



THE WIDE WOK I n MAGAZINE 



sight that is not 
thunderstorm." 
inusual, then ? asked M. de 
i 

ar, or once in three 

n or 

I 'iu • capricious 

r talk was interrupted by a vivid blue 
I lightning, followed by a rever 
thunder. The travellei bed 



Ben-Haffar surveyed bis work with satisfac- 
tion and then retired to rest. In the middle of 
the night he was awakened out of his slumber 
1<\ a sudden noise, followed by a volley of 
curses. Running out, he saw that his machine 
had acted perfectly, for on the floor lay a 
member of the light-fingered persuasion, on 
whose cranium the heavy bucket, together with 
the water it contained, had fallen. To add to 
the poor man's misfortunes, the sturdy Ben- 
Haffar picked him up and kicked him all the 




hrotn a] 



A TARTY OF ARAU CHIEFS INSPECTING THE MOTOR-CARS 



[Photo. 



r the coverings of the cars. A few 

truck the sand, and then 

inute later, there was such a deluge of rain 

ith only in tropical countries. 

Wet and bedraggled the party at last reached 

the town of Batna. Ben-Haffar warned them 

ice swarmed with thieves, and as a 

ir the stealing propensities of these 

ie arranged, when his masters had all 

ed into their rooms for the night, a curious 

raposed of a framework of laths. 

This he pla -he door that formed the 

n entrance of the whole suite of rooms, 

he took good care to leave unlocked. 

worth) of the ingenious Arab, 

I in such a manner that when 

1 a bucket of water, placed 

the framework, fell on the 

intruder's head. 



way down the stairs and out into the street, 
giving him a final heave as he threw him out of 
the door. 

The next morning, while on the way to 
Timgad, he related his exploit to his masters, 
receiving in consequence much baksheesh 

Timgad was reached without incident, and 
the travellers had the novel sensation of passing 
through the ruined and deserted streets of the 
noble Roman city. They felt proud to be the 
drivers of the first motor-cars that had ever 
entered its ancient gates. 

They took a few photos., as they had already 
done at other places during their travels, and 
then returned to the Arab village half a mile 
away, where they awaited the arrival of President 
Loubet, who was then making an official tour, 
and with whom they returned to Algiers and so 
to civilization once more. 







XII Trie (END of T He 
JOUF^Ney 



Mr. Kennedy here relates 
the most hazardous experi- 
ence which happened during 
his tramp — how he got 
hopelessly lost in the Pyre- 
nees during a heavy snow- 
storm. When almost in 
sight of his goal — the 
French frontier — death 
stared him in the face, and 
only a combination of 
common sense and good 
fortune saved him. 




N the shed adjoining the posada a 
middle-sized man was raking straw. 
I hailed him and told him that I 
had come from Andorra, and that 
Miguel Calounes had told me to 
call here and put up till the morning. It was 
all right. The man was very friendly. He was 
the " amigo " of Miguel Calounes ! On the 
morrow a party was leaving the posada for 
Hospitalet. I could join them ! And he 
wound up by telling me to go into the posada 
and get something to eat. They would provide 
well for anyone who came from Miguel 
Calounes ! At this he resumed his work and 
I went into the posada. 

Inside the usual fire of logs was blazing away. 
Before it sat an old man and an old woman. 
They were evidently the father and mother of 
the man outside. On the fire a great pan of 
potatoes was boiling. 

The old woman had a shrewd, clever face. 
She looked very like an Irishwoman. She asked 
me a great number of questions concerning 
myself, and where I came from and where I 
was going. She was a clever old woman, but 
she was not much used to seeing strangers, for 
she asked me if I were French. I had been 
asked this question when I first got into 
Andorra. And, indeed, I had been asked it in 
Spain — in the province of Catalonia and even 

Copyright, 1903, by 



in parts of Castilia. I who of all men looked 
least like a Frenchman. 

The old man had no curiosity about me at 
all. He just looked at me when I came in 
first, and then he turned his head and blinked 
at the fire — in the manner that he had been 
blinking, probably, for years. 

I stopped the old woman's questions by 
telling her that I wanted something to eat. She 
• smiled and clapped her hands loudly. A young 
woman came in. I could see that she was the 
wife of the man who was working outside. One 
of the reasons why this was apparent was 
because of the expression of the old lady's face 
when she entered. It marked the sign of the 
strained relation between her and the younger 
woman. Mother-in-law and daughter-in-law 
evidently did not always pull well together. 
Andorra, of the perfect government, was, alas ! 
no better off in this respect than was any other 
place. For a moment I felt sad. 

But I was soon cheered by the sight of a good 
meal. The young woman set it out for me in 
the great room of the posada. The meal was 
what some people might call rough — but it was 
straight and honest. There was plenty of 
grilled meat, plenty of bread, and plenty of wine. 
The walk and the cold had made me tre- 
mendously hungry. 

After I had finished eating I felt li-ke a king 

George Newnes, Limited. 



I Hi; wild WOR] l> MAGAZINE. 



i! Hospitalet. Why 
lother day in getting to my 
I feeling fit a 

up over the 
four hours' march, 
might be, from Hos 
it ? 
. up 1 £ the table, feel- 

iptimisttc through food and 
of the posada to intei 
ian who was raking the straw. 1 
ud (Hit how many hours o\ sunlight 
me 
II 1 I thre hours of sun and 

an hour v\ twilight. This would 
ne half an hour short, but I felt lit 
iull up that half-hour, and even it 1 
pull it up I would be near enough to see 
-. ss thi lights of Hospitalet. 
A moment after I had paid my score to the 
: woman 1 had my knapsack 
upon my back, and I was going 
a the path at a rattling rate. As 1 was 
rd the man who was raking the 
E ui something after me. But I 
attention to him. I had no time to 
if I were going to make 
ilet that night. I felt strong and swift 
nvwhere Besides, advice was a 
thing to !>e disregarded ! 

1 never felt so well in my life as I went 

id up. I was still some distance 

u the actual summit of the Pyrenees, but I 

I would soon, remedy that. I was in 

g form. 

all over the place, and it was 

1 uld have followed the path with 

■eak. It was better now 

than it had been at anytime since I had entered 

her end of the republic. 

to wonder more than ever why 

ad wanted me to break the 

He evidently did not think 

much of my climbing powers if he thought a 

nine hours' climb would do me up ! 

my thoughts as I went quickly 

and . The path had now become 

and it curved up the side of the 

;ntain in a half spiral. I could see it up 

' ■ wn below me. A 

iath. 

it an hour's climb I came upon a 

rs). They were 

than it was.' And 

parenthetically that the time 

en ] ineros and all 

:s. Mountain paths are 

s an<: rful affairs that are best left 

foot of man and to the 



hoofs and feet of animals. If a man can't 
follow a trail he has no business going on his 
own through mountains And making a road 
on one part of the trail spoils the eye for the 
rest o( the trail. The road is easy to follow and 
the eye becomes lazy and loses the sharpness 
that is forced upon it through the trail becoming 
faint- as it does when passing over a rocky- 
place. 

1 asked these road-menders the distance it 
was to Hospitalet. The answers I got were 
even more varied than were the answers I got 
m Seo de Urgel when I asked the people at 
dinner in the posada how far it was from there 
i" Andorra. 

The first road mender said it was four hours, 
the next said it was three hours, and the man 
after him said it was six hours. No, he 
corrected himself, did this last man He said 
it was "cinco medio" (five and a half). He 
wished to be exact. He was a man of an 
honest and conscientious turn of mind. There 
were seven camineros doctoring the road, and 
all of them gave me different answers. They 
were stationed about fifty yards from one 
another, and I thought I would ask them all for 
the humour of the thing. 

After I left the camineros I noticed the road 
getting soft. They had been grading it and had 
evidently been covering it over with a coating of 
earth. It was then that I began to bless them 
in the backwards sense, for there is nothing so 
trying as a soft road when one is climbing. A 
man slips back nearly half a step for every step 
he takes. 

And suddenly it began to snow heavily. 

But I worked along as hard as I could, for it 
would not do to lose any time. I had to pull 
up half an hour through starting late from the 
posada in Soldao. 

But whatever else I had counted on I had 
not counted on a road, or trail, that was soft at a 
height of something over ten thousand feet 
above the level of the sea. I began to curse 
the camineros afresh. But I soon stopped that 
I needed all my breath for work that was 
before me. 

The road still wound in a half spiral up above 
me, but I could tell that I was up near the 
summit from the look of the mountains around 
me. 

By this time the continual slipping back at 
every step had begun to tire me, but 1 worked 
away till suddenly I was struck right in the eyes 
with a clean drive of snow. For a moment I 
wondered what had happened 

And then it dawned upon me. I was on the 
summit, and had been struck in the face by a 
hard wind that was driving right across it — a 



A TRAMP IN SPAIN. 



25 







■ 










VySTw.-v^r. '" 



.J 



I WAS STRUCK RIGHT IN THE EVES WITH A CLEAN DRIVE OF SNOW. 



wind that swept the snow before it in a thick, 
heavy drive. 

I waited for a moment— and the wind veered 
a little. I again stepped out over the path. It 
was easier walking now. There was no climb- 
ing to be done. The camineros had been 
at work here — even on the summit — for the 
path had been treated exactly in the way it 
had been treated lower down. I could tell this 
as I walked along. 

There were times when the drive of snow 
blinded me, but I kept going as quickly as I 
could. And then all at once there was no path at 
all. Nothing but snow. But I pressed on in the 
direction in which I was going. It would not 
do for me to get nervous. And soon I came 
up to it again. It was the same broad path 
that I had been on before — the path that the 
camineros had graded — had been working upon. 
Just at the beginning of it I noticed, or thought 
I noticed, a rather faint trail that branched off 
to the left. For the moment it struck me that 
possibly this might be the trail going down to 
Hospitalet. The snow had pretty well drifted 
it over, but it seemed to me that I could make 
out the line of it as it ran along. However, I 
decided to have nothing to do with it— for here 
was the broad path ! 

I was going down now as hard as I could. I 
was enough below the summit to be sheltered 
from the hard wind and the blinding drive of the 
snow. I could see the snow now and then as 
it was being whirled in clouds up above my 
head. 

Vol. xii.— 4. 



And then the 
path suddenly 
stopped again. 
There was no- 
thing before me 
but snow. 

I turned and 
began to climb 
up to the summit 
again— this time 
slipping at every 
step as I had 
slipped when 
climbing up to it 
from the other 
side. There was 
no time for me to 
stop to think 
about anything at 
all. I had to get 
on. My instinct 
told me that it 
was useless for 
me to press on 
over the snow as 
I had done when I had lost the path in the first 
place. And I felt too that the faint trail that I 
had seen branching off to the left on the summit 
was the right trail — that I would have to follow 
it to get to Hospitalet. I had completely lost 
my bearings, but I had been in mountains 
before — and I had followed a slight, faint trail 
before. And I knew also of the fact that a sort 
of sixth sense would guide a man, used to 
mountains, over a path where other beings — 
men or animals — had been in the habit of going 
before — however faintly the path, or trail, 
showed. Danger but sharpened the senses. 
The reason that men got lost was because they 
lost their heads when they got into difficulties. 
The great thing was to keep oneself easy. 

It was darker now than when I had started 
from Soldao, but the sun had not yet gone 
down. Though there was no shining from it, I 
could tell by the colour of the sky off to the 
west that it was still up over the mountains. I 
would have still time to get to Hospitalet if I 
had any sort of luck. All I had to do was to 
keep easy and not lose my head. Three things 
had worked against me : My own foolishness in 
leaving Soldao — the spoiling of the' trail by the 
camineros — and the snow. 

But there was no use thinking of that now ! 
The thing for me to do was to get up to the 
summit and find the trail that I saw branching 
off and follow it. I knew that if I could 
manage this I would be all right. I could not 
be more than five kilbmetros from Hospitalet — 
about three miles ! 






1 111. \\ IDE NOK1 1> MAGAZINE. 



1 \>. gain and fighting 

th< It was now 

. my w towards 

til Km when 
nothing but a 

i in disyuisinq the fad to 
til hail been drifted 
1 had been last there 1 
than half an hour 
I knew by the set o\ the 
that 1 was looking for it in 
!: Iaj off over there — 
il it was more than 1 
How it. 
I 1 thought of 
the other side ol 
suit, and finding th>- path 
went down to Soldao. It 
take me very 
;ada 
. • 

_ d fire and 
But 
the: wo thii 

rrying-out 

< Ine was 

that I might not find the 

ther side — J- ^! 

might have -.-S^-'" 

: — and the 

that I hardly 

the people 

in - t a fool I 

Id wind was 
:ng the snow around 
in clou I was half- 

blinded and chilled to the 
ie. Whatever I was 
ould not 
■ on this 
summit. The cold would 
of me, 
! found 

d by the next people 
mg. 
■ k again 
along the path thai 
nov. - ,ii I 

' . 
mm it. I 
'.he reach of the 
thrust of the hard wind 
that 

dea \nd 

at la 
of the | 
the blank 

ROUND 



path that the camineros had made! It had, 
indeed, turned out to he a blind path going 
nowhere. Bui tor it 1 would have taken the 
trail that I was Mire now must have been the 
right "il.- the trail going to Hospitalet. I 
might, o\ course, be mistaken — no man was 
infallible. But I felt that I was not mistaken. 

It was coming on to darkness now, and the 
idea came to me to go over the snow in front of 
me. I might have the luck to come across 
another trail. There would be surely more 
than one going in the direction I wanted to go. 



. 




■:• - 




- 'KKII I I K I . A 1,11 A 1 
RUCK." 



And even if there 
were not it was 
better for me to 
keep moving any- 
how. 

I went along for a 
while, and then I 
made out in the half 
darkness ahead of 
me an object that 
looked like a great 
round rock. A 
hundred yards or so 
from it the snow was 
all gone from under 
my feet, and I found 
myself walking on 
loose stones. 

When I got to the 
object I found that 
it was a circular hut 
built of stones and 



A TRAMP IX SPAIN. 



27 



shaped like a hive. I walked slowly round it. 
There was the entrance into it — a space about 
three feet high and two feet broad. But the 
snow had partly drifted up the space. 

I cleared away the snow with my foot, and 
bending my head down into the space I struck 
a match and peered in. As the match flared I 
noticed the immense thickness of the wall of 
the hut. This hut was made to stand the 
frightful wind-pressure that drove along when 
great storms were raging here on the mountain 
tops. A hut built in the ordinary way would 
be blown to pieces. But this hut would stand 
the fiercest hurricane that ever blew. Not only 
was it immensely strong, but its shape would 
allow the wind to get no hold on it. A circular 
hut of immense power, shaped like a hive. It 
was evidently built as a storm-shelter for 
shepherds — or travellers. 

Someone had sheltered in it — how long ago I 
could not tell. I was standing now in the 
centre of it holding a match up in my hand 
and looking round. The curve of the roof 
above the centre was about eight feet high. 
Near my feet was a small pile of dull white 
ashes — the remains of a wood fire. The floor 
to the right of the space through which I had 
entered was covered with a heap of very light 
twigs. I bent down and touched them. They 
were dry— dry as a bone. I was in luck. I 
could stay here till the morning came. 

I took off my knapsack and sat down. And 
then the cold struck into me. It seemed to be 
almost as cold as it was up on the summit. I 
was all right when climbing or walking. But 
almost the moment I stopped exerting myself 
the cold fastened on me. 

The whole thing had been my own fault. I 
had been guilty of knowing too much — of being 
over-confident. Had I listened to Miguel 
Calounes in the first place this would not have 
happened. I had by rare good luck found a 
place of shelter, but I was as yet by no means 
out of the wood. I was still in danger — a great 
deal of danger. If the temperature were to 
drop still lower, suddenly — as it well might, it 
being the night of the 24th of October, it was 
hard to tell what would happen. I was lost, 
but I didirt mind that very much. Finding my 
way — in daylight — was the easiest thing going. 
I would be almost certain to see the trail down 
in the mountains beneath me when the light 
came in the morning. If I failed to sec it there 
was even then a means of finding my way that 
was absolutely sure. I was over the summit of 
the mountains, and all I had to do was to follow 
down the first stream I came to. This would 
naturally run down into a bigger stream, and I 
would follow the stream down and down till it 



came to the main water-course running through 
the chain of mountains. Along the main water- 
course I would be certain to come across places 
where people lived — and that in a very short 
time. No, finding my way was nothing. 'What 
I was afraid of was the dreary wait of at least 
twelve hours in the darkness — and the cold. 

Suddenly an idea came to me and in a 
moment I was outside of the hut and fastening 
my knapsack .up on to my back again. My 
idea was to try and find Hospitalet. I could 
not be very far from it, and if I got up on to a 
higher elevation I might see the lights shining 
from it. It seemed to me that the elevation 
over on the other side of the gorge would be 
high enough for the purpose. I would be all 
right if I could only see the lights of Hospitalet. 
I could then make my way down to it slowly 
and cautiously. It was risky, but then it was 
risky staying in the hut through the whole of 
the long night. There was nothing in it with 
which I could make a fire — nothing but the 
twigs on which I would have to lie through the 
night if I were forced to come back to shelter 



in it again. 



Burning them was out of the 



question. The wood that had been in the hut 
had all been burned up. Before I left it I took 
note of its surroundings. Two big boulders 
lay off from it. 

I made my way slowly across the gorge. 
When I was some distance over I turned to take 
another look at the hut. I wanted to mark its 
position well in my mind, so that I would be able 
to know it if coming towards it from a distance. 
Yes, I could find it easily enough. From where 
I stood it formed, with the two boulders, a rough 
triangle. The triangle so formed could vary but 
little in general appearance even if I approached 
it from another direction. I was all right as far 
as finding the hut was concerned. 

I turned and went on again towards the 
elevation. I had not gone far before I heard the 
faint roaring of water. But I went on, hoping 
for the best. It might not be running between 
me and the place where I wanted to go ! 

And the roaring became louder. 

Luck was against me. A torrent was hurling 
along at the foot of the elevation I wanted to 
climb. I had either to ford it or go back to the 
hut and pass the night. 

I decided to ford it. In life a man must take 
a chance, and besides, a torrent running down at 
such an angle could at the most be no more than 
three feet deep. It made a lot of noise, but that 
was nothing. 

I went along it to try and find a place where 
there were stones going across so that I. might get 
over dryshod if possible. But I failed to find 
stepping-stones and I just plunged right across. 






1111 WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 




I'HE MIDDLE, AND ! WAS NEARLY 
KNf> : BV ITS RUSH. ' 

The shock was sharp but short. The water it afterwards. 

up to the middle, and I was nearly 
knr. r by its rush, but I went on climbing 

vation on the other side. 

on the top of it and looking around. 

I i nothing. It was fairly clear 

■ iy down beneath me it was 

a strange sort of night as far as 

rned — clear in some places and 

There was hardly a trace of 

I down— at least where I was. 

mother elevation still higher up, 

1 would go up there and see if I 

inything. Up I went. But it was 

re was nothing but a thick 

neath me. Even if I 

right direction, and even if 

re shining ever so 

seen them through a 

A revolving light could 

ha; It was like a wall. 

tor it but to go back to 
tht :t out there till morning. 



It was then that I noticed that 
my trousers were frozen stiff on 
me. The cold was sharper than I 
thought. There was even a rim 
oi ice around the bottom of my 
jacket, where it had touched the 
water as I was fording the torrent. 
Some of the water had splashed 
in my face. I had not noticed it 
at the time, but it was brought to 
my mind now. My eyebrows were 
frozen. 

1 lowever, I made my way down 
the elevation — and down the one 
beneath — and across the torrent 
again — and over to the hut. 
There was only one thing to be 
done, and that had to be done 
quickly. I must get off my frozen 
clothes ! 

I got in through the space — 
and struck a match. There was 
the heap of light twigs upon which 
I would have to lie till daylight 
came ! There were the dull white 
ashes of the last fire that had 
been made in the hut. If I could 
only make a fire ! But there was 
nothing to be gained by letting 
my mind .dwell upon that. I 
must make the best of it. 

I struck another match and tried 
to stick the unlighted end of it in 
a crack between the stones of the 
wall. It fell to the ground. Then 
I stuck one into the crack and lit 
It seemed to me that everything 



1 did took ten times longer than usual. 

My knapsack was on the ground now and I 
was sitting on it, trying to get off my boots. It 
seemed as if I would never be able to get them 
off. Once I thought I would have to cut them 
off with the big, sharp Spanish knife I carried— 
the knife that had been flung in the row in 
Granada. I wished I were in Granada now — 
where it was warm ! 

My boots were off at last. And then I got 
off my stockings. My feet were already numbed 
with the cold. I had been none too soon. I 
was in the dark now. The match up above me 
seemed to have gone out hours before. 

I had everything off now — coat, vest, trousers, 
drawers, shir' and undershirt— everything. I 
stood naked— shivering. And then I opened 
my knapsack and fumbled out my other under- 
shirt, and drawers, and a pair of socks. They 
were dry. I had kept them wrapped up in a big 
piece of oiled paper— that I had also got in 
(Iranada. I kept thinking about Granada — 



A TRAMP IN SPAIN. 



29 



where it was warm. I lay down then on the 
heap of twigs with my knapsack under my head. 
I covered myself up as well as I could with the 
part of my clotb.es that were dry. I coiled my- 
self up as much as I possibly could in a circle. 

I can't describe the night 1 passed in that hut. 
All that I can say is that it was horrible. I 
never slept through 
the whole of the 
time. I had one 
long fight with the 
cold. 



going to Hospitalet themselves. They were 
the party that had left Soldao that morning 
the party that I could have gone with had I 
waited. They had come by a short cut through 
the mountains. I went on with them. We 
were still about six kilbmetros away from Hos- 
pitalet. When I climbed up the elevation the 



staring 
space waiting 



The dawn was 
showing at last 
through the open 
space of the hut. 
For the last few 
hours I had been 
at that 
for 
it to come. And . 
it had come at last. 

I was dressing 
myself. My trou- 
sers were still stiff 
with the frost, and 
so were my boots. 
But walking would 
soon cure that. 

I felt so stiff and 
used up when I got 
outside of the hut 
that 1 felt as if I 
could hardly walk 

at all. But after going a hundred yards or so I 
limbered up a little. And then I saw the trail 
just as I thought I would see it. It was away 
down beneath me — about a mile and a half off. 

And to my joy I saw a party of three men 
crossing a stream that lay just beyond it. They 
had two mules with them. I hailed them and 
hurried forward as fast as I could. I was glad 
to see anyone. And I wanted to make sure if 
I were going in the direction of Hospitalet. 

They were coming towards me. The mules 
were heavily laden. But when I was hardly 
more than half a mile away from them they dis- 
appeared. I soon came up to the place where 
I had seen them last. But I could make nothing 
of it. The whole thing looked mysterious. I 
could see no place where two mules and three 
men would be likely to disappear. 

And then I heard the tinkle of bells off 
behind me, and there coming along was a string 
of mules and men. Seven men and seven 
mules. I waited for them to come up. 

Yes, I was on the right path ! They were 

THE 




YES, I WAS ON THE RIGHT 1'ATH ! THEY WERE GOING TO HOSPITALET THEMSELVES " 

night before— to look for the lights — I had not 
been as near to it as I thought. 

After something over an hour's journey we 
turned to the left out of the pass, and there 
before us was a little town flashing white in the 
sun — a town of but a hundred and forty souls — 
but still a haven. A place where I could get 
food and shelter and what I needed most — rest. 
My journey was over — my journey that had had 
its good times and its bad times — that had 
had its strange, wonderful interest, and its 
loneliness, and its perils. I had come through 
the whole length of Spain — a fascinating, 
beautiful country, peopled with a strange people. 
I had known the fine, gay And'alusians — the 
sullen Castilians — the dignified people of 
Arragon — the hard, strong Catalans. I had 
eaten out of the same pot with the people 
in country posadas — I had lived in the best 
hotels — I had tramped hundreds of miles 
through its plains and mountain chains. 

And now the journey was over. I was in 
France. . Here was Hospitalet. 

F.ND. 



w w 



PETER THE SCRUBBER." 



i;\ I!. J. Hyde, 

[he Scrubber" was an Australian wild boar, the dread of the countryside. His ferocity 
i time and again he disabled valuable horses and killed dogs with his terrible 
I pursuit, so that he came to be looked upon as bearing a charmed life. The 
how this porcine outlaw was at last " bailed up " and killed. 




r< >S I up country stations in Australia 

B paddock. Tin's is a small 

ground, usually of about 

m extent and securely 

fenced, in which a few pigs are kept 

and fed. L'hough bred wild in the bush they 

. and are sometimes allowed to 

• 1 about the homestead. 

brum hie "' (wild) jugs do no damage so 

their number is kept within reasonable 

limits: but a mob of pigs if neglected increases 

in alarming rate and soon overruns the 

;try to such an extent that at times a 

g a head, or rather snout, is paid for 

the n. 

The scrub-bred pig is entirely different to the 

van d on the plains. Like Cassius, "he 

; a lean and hungry look," is very vieious, 

id is the hereditary enemy of the " snout- 

liunt - the men charged with keeping 

B tie called. 

At one station I was on we were troubled by 

particularly vieious beast, known far and 

gh the countryside as "Peter the 

He was a notorious outlaw, a very Ishmael 
among pigs, who, from his fastness among the 
_.t scrubs, had for years success- 
fining influences alike of the 
k and the snout-hunters. 

ith him was not till after 
I discretion. At that 
v quite a veteran in fighting, 
minus the end of his tail and 
i upper lip. 11 tusked and 

on his ugly hid< and muti 
many a encounter 

the station i out by myself 

ting turl i potted " him, but 

half the < r.-.-k by the time I 

i all I could do was to send a 
lie went up the 
ank. With a rifle I could have drop- 
but his luck was " in " as usual. 
1 upon his career of porcine vice 



at an early age. One day a stockman came 
back to the head station with a bandaged leg 
and his legging ripped up. When questioned, 
he explained that he had seen a mob of 
"scrubbers " out on the plain, and had set his 
dog on to one particularly ugly little brute with 
a blue patch over one eye. Unfortunately, after 
he had dismounted and was running up to 
throw and dispatch the animal, his dog had 
loosed his hold. The porker immediately 
(barged between the stockman's legs, sending 
him flying, and ripping his leg up as he did so. 
The pig escaped. Well, indeed, was it for that 
unlucky stockman that Peter was young and 
comparatively innocent, and that his tusks were 
small. 

Shortly after this incident a " snout-hunting " 
expedition was organized, but, though the 
" mob " was found and the men returned with 
many snouts, Peter's was not one of them, for 
an attempt to yard the entire " mob " failed, 
owing to one of the party having ridden too 
close to them and caused the pigs to split into 
small parties. As is usual in such cases, each 
one among the party singled out his particular 
victim. Luckily for Peter no one happened to 
select him at first, and, though the men scoured 
the country and killed several stragglers after- 
wards, Peter was nowhere to be seen. 

His next escape was from a stockman who 
caught and threw him, but, not having a knife to 
dispatch him with, tied his legs together and 
rode back for one. On his return he was 
astonished to find that Peter had vanished. 

This was a most exceptional stroke of luck, 
as it is only by sheer accident that an animal so 
secured could possibly escape. Peter's luck, 
however, still stuck to him, for about three 
months after he was again " bailed up " by a 
young lad, who, however, was afraid to get off 
and tackle him on foot. After a prolonged 
struggle with two dogs, therefore — in the course 
of which he had the major portion of one ear 
bitten off — Peter succeeded once more in 
making good his retreat. 



"PETER THE SCRUBBER." 



3i 




"HE TIED HIS LEGS TOGETHEK AND KOUE BACK." 

Evidently finding life on the plains too 
exciting for his fancy, he retired to the 
impenetrable scrub. Occasionally, however, he 
would make a tour round his old haunts, but 
whenever he was sighted there was a fight or a 
chase. 

Soon we heard from a neighbouring station 
that Peter had killed two dogs, for by this time 
he had grown into a big boy, and had developed 
roaming and pugilistic tendencies of no mean 
order. My friend MacFarlane bailed him up 
one day, but Peter broke away from the dog, 
charged, and, passing under my friend's mare, 
ripped her so severely that the poor animal had 
to be destroyed. Thereupon another black 
mark went down to Peter's account with us. 

The next time he put in an appearance — 
some months afterwards — he had evidently been 
pretty roughly handled, for his tail and lip were 
missing, though how and where he had lost 
them we could never find out. 



A horse was found in the 
scrub about this time with the 
remnants of what had once been 
a saddle still on his back. No 
one ever came forward to claim 
him, nor could any trace be dis- 
covered as to how or when lie 
had been lost. Possibly there is 
a solution to both mysteries in 
some dark corner of the dense 
" brigloes," in the shape of the 
bleaching skeleton of some rash 
traveller who had the temerity 
to try conclusions with Peter in 
his own native stronghold, and fell 
a victim to those merciless tusks. 

The station-manager was the 
next to bewail the loss of his 
favourite dog Ben, killed before 
he had laid a tooth on the out- 
law. This caused quite a hue 
and cry, and there was much 
racing and chasing around to 
punish this demon pig. But 
there was no Peter to be found 
anywhere ; the brute had mysteri- 
ously disappeared. We could 
imagine his tattered lip assuming 
an even more sardonic grin than 
usual as he listened to the tale of 
slaughtered innocents borne to 
him in his lair by the few hard- 
pressed porkers that in despera- 
tion sought shelter from our 
energetic pursuit in the surround- 
ing scrubs. 

After this Peter lay low for 
awhile. He had been the 
recipient of several long - distance flying 
shots, and been reported dead twice, but he 
bobbed up again after a few months. He had 
by this time acquired such a reputation for 
killing any dog set on him that everyone 
avowed that no dog could possibly hold him. 
I looked at my own faithful Bluie and smiled. 
I was convinced that never had a gamer or 
better dog been born. 

Peter had not put in an appearance for some 
time, and we began to believe that the last report 
of his decease was correct. One day, however, 
we were out looking for some pigs that had 
escaped by accident from the pig-paddock, 
with never a thought of Peter crossing our 
minds. We rode wide apart, till a distant 
" Coo-ee " warned us that our quarry had been 
sighted. We found that about fifteen of the 
pigs were lying in the creek, so, making a circuit, 
we showed ourselves on the opposite bank, so 
as to start them towards the yard. 



THE WIDE WOR] D MAGAZINE. 




i 



[uealing horn their 

nk and out 

n. As I • ai ol 

the air. and a moment 

n and 

• 

k. But 

r in th< had 

hi< h promptly 

md hung on for dear 

I the 
kmen a galloped 

I 
We had thr- with us 

jie, and a ind here they 

g _ on like grim death to the first 



pig they had been able to lay hold 
of, while the redoubtable l'eter was 
making off for a bend in the creek. 
He was not in a particular 
hurry, apparently, preferring to 
i si rve his energy for the light 
that bitter experience must haw 
taught him was inevitable. We 
wanted to bail him up in the open, 
but he was too quick for us, and 
we only just caught him on the 
bank of the creek. Savagely he 
turned at bay among the branches 
of a fallen tree, .his ferocious little 
eyes glaring defiance at us from 
his stronghold. It was an awk- 
ward place, and we had to keep 
the dogs back as they would have 
had no chance had they tackled 
him there. lie seemed to know 
it too. and was disinclined to shift. 
1 tried to draw him by getting 
oft, walking as near as possible 
and throwing slicks at him, m 
order to induce him to charge, yet 
taking good care to keep close to 
a tree in case he did. Suddenly 
he turned and made for the creek 
The moment he was clear of the 
branches we set the dogs on him 
Bob and Bluie seemed to recognise 
that they had a formidable an- 
tagonist. Bluie was an old stager 
at the game, and I knew he would 
never let go if he could only once 
get a good hold, but Bob was 
young and more excitable, though 
game enough. 

We had no firearms with us, 

otherwise we should have shot 

him, instead of risking our dogs. 

Immediately he saw tin dogs he wheeled 

with a vicious grunt and stood ready for the 

fray — a grim, gaunt figure, with the froth 

dripping from his mouth, and his torn lip giving 

it of sneering expression to his savage face. 

My heart sank for my favourite as I watched 

him circling round seeking for an opening. Bob 

was the first to get hold, seizing l'eter by the 

a i cond later Bluie was hanging to the 

shreds of the missing ear. But he whirled 

round like lightning and shook them both off 

in a second, bluie n irrowly escaping those 

terrible tu.^ks. 

I;. Bob's owner, began to get excited, 
and rode too close to the combatants ; we 
shouted to him to keep back, but it was too 
late. Peter spotted him in a twinkling and 
charged furiously. Bluie raced after him and 






"PETER THE SCRUBBER.' 



33 



seized him by the hind leg, but could not stop 
his rush. Over he rolled, and Peter was free 
again. Jack saw him coming and tried to wheel 
his horse, but could not get clear, and with a 
vicious rip Peter hamstrung the unfortunate 
animal as he passed, adding yet another to the 
long list of his delinquencies before he dis- 
appeared into a clump of porcupine bush close 
by. We called off the dogs and examined 
Jack's horse. We found it a hopeless case, and 
were obliged to destroy the poor beast. Then 
we turned our attention to Peter again. To 
have sent the dogs in after him would have 
been to send them to certain death. 

We tried everything we could think of to 
"draw" him, but without success. It was a 
dangerous game, for we did not know for 
certain where he was. So at last we set fire 



to the patch and 
With a sudden 
dash he made 
across the open 
ground for the 
creek. The dogs, 
however, caught 
him on the bank, 
and round he 
wheeled to face 
them again, but 
his long fight was 
now beginning to 
tell on him. Bob 
was the first to 
get hold, but 
Peter shook him 
off, and before he 
could recover him- 
self the boar's two 



turned him out. 



front teeth were on him, and another plucky dog 
had gone to swell the list of his victims. Just as 
he lowered his head to dispatch poor Bob Bluie, 
seeing his long-watched-for opportunity, seized 
him fairly and squarely by the ear. 

Round went Peter at once, but he might as 
well have tried to throw off his own hide as 
endeavour to shake Bluie off once he .had got 
a fair hold. 

I rushed to his assistance and grabbed Peter 
by the hind leg, but in the scrimmage, before I 
could throw him or realize what had happened, 
part of the loose sandy bank gave way, and 
down we all rolled together into the creek. 
Luckily it was deep water we fell into, and 
when I came to the surface Peter was making 
for the opposite bank, with Bluie in hot 
pursuit. 

Up the bank scrambled Peter and off 

for the scrub, but 
Bluie had got 
him again before 
he had gone 
twenty yards. I 
swam across after 
them. Both 
were well - nigh 
spent when I 
caught and threw 
the boar ; and 
so, with defiance 
in his eye and 
the gallant Bluie 
still hanging tena- 
ciously to his 
ear, " Peter the 
Scrubber " met 
his death. 




" DOWN WE ALL ROLLED TOGETHER INTO THE CREEK. 



Vol. xii. — 5. 



When the JYlissTssfppi Breaks JCoose. 



l'.\ John S. Kendall, oi New Orleans. 

Every year the mighty Mississippi is subject to disastrous floods, caused by the melting 

snows in the mountains. To obviate these, gigantic dykes or levees have been built, but 

every now and again the turbulent stream forces its way through. What happens 

then is described and illustrated in the accompanying article. 




HE lower portion of the mighty 
Mississippi, which traverses the 
central portion of the United States, 
is bounded on either side by enor- 
mous walls of earth, known as 
es, which have been erected during the 
twenty years at an expense of nearly 
million dollars, [tartly by the Government, 
and partly through the exertions of the people 
dwelling in the States through which the great 
river fl< 

The first levee was en i ted in front of New 



Orleans about the year 1725, by Governor 
Perier, one of the officials who ruled the French 
possessions in colonial times. But by far the 
greater portion of the lower Mississippi Valley 
was then, and for more than a hundred years 
after, abandoned to the annual inundation of 
the river. 

Every year the melting snows in the north 

and along the big tributaries of the Mississippi 

—the Ohio and the Missouri — cause tremendous 




T CREVASbE AT HYMEL — HALF A MILLION SACKS OF EARTH WERE THROWN 

From a Plwto. 



NTO IT WITHOUT EFFECT. 



WHEN THE MISSISSIPPI BREAKS LOOSE. 



freshets, which last 
from early in 
March till the end 
of June, raising the 
level of the river 
to an extraordinary 
height, and rushing 
down with im- 
mense force. 
When one con- 
siders the enor- 
mous volume of 
water let loose by 
these freshets it 
will be readily ap- 
parent what wide- 
spread damage re- 
sults from inunda- 
tions in the fertile 
and highly - culti- 
\ated country bor- 
dering the river. 

To obviate this, 
the building of 
the levees was 

taken in hand, and people hoped that the 
impetuous floods which had annually devastated 
the country side, covering the smiling cane 




THE TEXAS 

From a\ 



PACIFIC RAILWAY 
TOP OF THE 



35 

plantations mnny 
feet deep in turbid 
wat' mud, 

were safely cut 

But the 
although reared 
with so much ■ 
and at such a great 
expenditure of 
money, are not 
always secure bar- 
riers between the 
people and the 
water. When the 
defence proves in 
efficient, and a 
break occurs, a 
"crevasse is 
formed -- that is, 
the water of the 
river flows with 
headlong impetu- 
osity through the 
gap in the embank- 
ment, ever widening 
and deepening the channel, and spreading ruin 
and desolation throughout the adjacent country. 
Something of this kind happened in 
Louisiana during the present spring 
The great river, swollen with snow- 
water from the mountains, surged 
against its levees with irresistible 
force, and the bank at Hymel, a 



—THE FLOOTJ WAS LEVEL WITH THE 
EMBANKMENT. [l'/loto. 




MANY NEGRO FAMILIES WERE DRIVEN TO TAKE REFUGE ON THE RAILWAV F.MHANKMENTS, AND WERE REDUCED TO CATC 
From a] FISH FROM THE FLOOD FOR SUSTENANCE. [P/IOCO. 



, ; 



THE WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 



plantation about thirty five miles above the 
southern city of New Orleans, broke 
unexpectedly one night about the middle of 
March. With a thunderous roar the Stream 
hurst through, the banks giving way before it 
until the breach was seven hundred feet wide 
and the water seventeen feet deep. 

Knowing what was at stake, the people made 

■rate efforts to close the "crevasse," but 

without success. Over half a million sacks filled 

with eartii were dumped into the breach in the 

,:t without effect : the headlong torrent 

hurled them aside as though they were pebbles. 

An immense sum was spent in driving piles, 

which were barely put in place when they 

s d like reeds before the current. The 



inundation of many settlements occupied by 
negro farm hands, who were driven to take refuge 
on the railway embankments, which, with such 
trees as resisted the current, were the only things 
that stood out above the sea of water. This, 
five miles from the " crevasse," was no less than 
seven feet deep. The second photograph repro- 
duced depicts the line of the Texas and Pacific 
Railway Company. The flood was almost level 
with the top of the embankment, through which 
it tore a passage. 

The third photograph is particularly interest- 
ing. It shows a family of negro refugees driven 
to the railway embankment by the encroaching 
waters, and reduced to catching fish from the 
flood for sustenance. Much suffering un- 
doubtedly resulted from this 
precarious mode of existence, 
which was the only one avail- 




r.SU MAILS HAU TO BE TRA ON TROLLEY HAND-CARS, WHILE PATROL-TROI I.KVS INSPECTED THE LINE. 

From a Photo. 



first photograph reproduced shows the broken 

with the hastily driven lines of piling 

utterly swept away from the central portion of 

the " crevasse,'' but still in place, although sadly 

shaken, at either side of the gap, through which 

- • »rrent is still rushing. 

The water from this "crevasse " made its way 

miles into the interior region, gradually filling 

the swamps and depressions, and ultimately 

finding an outlet in the Gulf of Mexico. It is 

nated that the damage done exceeded 

ty-five million dollars, though, fortunately, 

the people were warned in time and no lives 

One of the curious effects of the flood was the 



able, however, for the very poor. These un- 
fortunate people had to camp out on the embank- 
ments, living on the fish they could catch and 
the charity of others, until the floods subsided. 
Even then, of course, the mischief was not at 
an end, for chaos reigned everywhere, and 
many of the sugar-mills could not be used for 
several months. 

The railways which traversed the line of the 
flood on its >vay to the Gulf were, of course, 
heavy sufferers. The country was entirely sub- 
merged for many miles, and in some places the 
rushing waters cut away the earthwork under 
the metals and compelled the temporary sus- 
pension of traffic. In such cases passengers 



WHEN THE MISSISSIPPI BREAKS EOOSE. 



37 



and mails had to be laboriously transported on 
trolley hand-cars, while each section of line was 
continually inspected by a guard of men on a 
patrol - trolley, as shown in the foregoing 
photograph. 

The officials charged with putting the sub- 
merged lines to rights did not have by any 
means a happy time. For once the travelling 
facilities they enjoy over their lines were of no 
use to them, and they had to charter boats 
and sail over the floods to the scene of the 
damage. The last photograph we reproduce 
shows the officials of the Texas and Pacific 
Railway making a tour of inspection of their 
line in a lugger, which, at the time the photo- 
graph was taken, was drifting across a sugar 
plantation covered by many feet of water. 

All this, of course, was exceptional. For 
nearly six years -quite a long time when 
speaking of Mississippi floods — nothing like' it 



has happened, although even the recent d 
trous inundation is insignificant I 
those on record. Nevertheless, tin ility 

of such outbreaks is always there, and the 
dwellers by the side of the mighty stream south 
of Tennessee fully realize it. 

In time, however, the levee system will 
completed. Then the formidable dvkes which 
confine the turbulent river to its bed will 
uniform and continuous from a point neailv 
five hundred miles north of the Gulf of Mexico 
to the very mouth of the Mississippi. They 
will be so broad of base and so thoroughlv 
settled and secure, it is hoped, that no flood, 
however great, can break the line of defence. 
But in the meantime the river will now and 
then take the bit in its teeth, so to speak, 
carrying ruin and desolation far and wide, and 
producing such curious and interesting scenes 
as those here shown. 




THE OFFICIALS OF THE TEXAS AND PACIFIC RAILWAY MAKING A TOUR O" 
INSPECTION OF THEIR FLOORED LINE IN A LUGGER. 

Fn::i a Photo. 




By Miss Cornelia Sorarji. 

The extraordinary history of a man who was to be seen at Agra, in India, up to a few years ago, 
and who is believed to have been the original of Kipling's " Mowgli." Sanichar was discovered in 
a wolt's den when some seven years old, and was captured after a hard fight. He was deaf and 
dumb, walked on all fours, and had a number of other curious characteristics. The authoress 
visited Sanichar at Agra, learnt his strange story, and secured his photograph. 




UDYARD KIPL1 
•eloved of many 
but comparativel) 
aware that there 
memory of this 
generation, a real 
'• M who probably 

sat for the Kipling picture. 
He was called " Sanichar " 
; unlay), from the day on 
which he was found, and 
known far and wide as 
"the Wolf- Hoy of North- 
tern India." His find- 
ing was in this wise. 

In the hunting season of 
1867 Indians follow- 

ing large game in the un- 
den jungles of Buland- 
shahr came upon a stray 
she-wolf and tracked her 
to her cave. This was 
hidden in a» low hillo' k, 
surmounted by a great 
boulder: and on the rock, 
sunning itself, sat an odd 
little object, which turned 
out to be a boy ! At the 
approach of the hunters 



NG'S '• Mowgli" 

st and West, 

few people are 

was, within the 




SANICHAR THE WOLF-BOY AT THE AGE OF ABOUT 
THIRTY-FOUR— THE AUTHORESS HAD THIS PHOTO- 
GRAPH TAKEN WHEN SHE VISITED HIM AT AGRA. 



he sprang down from his perch and, running on 
all fours, was hustled into the cave, under the 
protection of the old mother-wolf. 

The Indians did not dare to attack the cave, 
but carried their story to the 
magistrate of Bulandshahr. 
There are many legends 
current in the country con- 
cerning children abducted 
by wolves ; but few of these 
children have been known 
to survive. And the 
hunters felt some responsi- 
bility concerning the boy. 

The magistrate advised 
them to light a fire at the 
mouth of the cave at a 
time when the wolves might 
be presumed to be at 
home. This they did, and 
with success ; for as Rud- 
yard Kipling has told us, 
an Indian wolf dreads no- 
thing more than the fire of 
the "two-legged." 

The mother - wolf rushed 
out, with the boy behind her. 
He was captured, but not 
without a hard fight. The 



SANICHAR THE WOLF BOY. 



39 



wolf did not want to lose him, and the 
hunters were badly bitten ere she was finally 
driven off. 

The child at this time must have been about 
seven or eight years of age, and he was sent 
to a mission orphanage. He was a curious 
creature. His lower limbs were extraordinarily 
developed, probably because of the all-fours 
position to which he had become accustomed 
and the long hind-step of an animal's walk ; lie 
had a sad little 
face, marked 
with the wrin- 
kles of old age; 
and there were 
scars all over 
him, possibly 
caused by the 
rough caresses 
of the mother- 
wolf. His head 
was small and 
his brow very 
low and con- 
tracted. His 
eyes were grey- 
ish, and ex- 
ceedingly large 
in proportion 
to his face; 
big and squint- 
ing, they had 
- the look of one 
who walked 
with his head 
to the ground 
and watched 
continually for 
an attack from 
some unseen 
enemy. In 
walking he 
lifted his feet 
as if he were 
wading through 

a swamp, and as he moved all his body 
swayed. Even when they taught him to walk 
on two feet he jerked his arms forward as 
if they helped him to get along. He 
would loll his head about constantly from side 
to side, and roll his large eyes angrily, looking 
behind him with the instinct of the hunted. 

Of course, he was hard to civilize. He hated 
sleeping under a roof, and he tore his clothes to 
shreds. He would nibble at the vegetables he 
found in the kitchen-garden, picking the green- 
food out of the earth with his mouth, like an 
animal, and he would gnaw meat from the bone. 

What had he eaten in wolf-land, one wonders. 




LIKE AN ANIMAL UK WOULD GNAW MEAT FROM THE BONE. 



He was deaf and dumb— naturally, there was no 
one in the wolf-lair to give him a vocabulary- 
but he was not unintelligent, making himself 
understood after a while and easily understand- 
ing others by signs. He would slap his stomach 
to show he was hungry, and was always imitat- 
ing the smoking of a cigar. I think at the 
back of his half-wolf mind there was a great 
gladness that he could come so near the fire 
and yet live. A lady at the mission told me 
that he was really like a big dog, and, 
when he got reconciled to the parting 
with his wolf-mother and his wolf- 
friends, even lovable. He would re- 
sume the all-fours position whenever he 
could ; a two-legged waik seemed to 
tire him. 

When I was in his 

part of the world and 

' / went to see him he 

fy/ was about thirty-four 

years of age, 
I expect, and 
I have a 
photograph of 
him taken at 
that time. 
He died the 
same year — 
of smoking ! 
He loved 
cigars ; the 
first time that 
lie saw the 
head of the 
mission smoke 
he went into 
fits of ghoul- 
ish laughter, 
seized the 
thing out of 
h i s m o u t h , 
and puffed 
away at it- 
fearful ly at 
and he begged 
cigars did not 
and proved the 



first, and then in triumph ; 

often for the luxury. But 

suit the constitution of a wolf, 

commonplace cause of his death in course of 

time. 

The pity was that no attempt was ever made 
to get at the mind of him. What did he think, 
one wonders, in those cave-days? He must 
have known the language of the beasts ; perhaps 
he could have taught it us: Did lie know of 
any difference? But no one asked him : and 
one cannot resist the reflection, Was not a great 
wrong done to him on that transfer to the 
haunts of men ? 






nil: WIPE WORLD MAGAZINE. 




HE PUFFED AWAY AT IT IN 1RIIMCH 



It is curious that these human-beast stories, 

in all ti' . should be connected 

with the wolf alone, or almost alone. I tried 

.■r from the old peasant folk of 

•r;i India whether there were any 

. nds as to the reason. One old woman said 

that when the mother- wolf of a pack loses all 

t hungering comes over her for 

g to love and tend, and 

unts in the haunts of men for a human 

I myself 1 n in the winter at Allahabad 

a little pack of wolvi park, quite 

the club tennis courts, no one hunting 
them. 

n i goo an odd thing happened, which 

ation of the old 

• ' i «; famine babies who were 

red at the Dufferin 

I at Allahal re playing one morn- 

of five and a girl of 

the wolf is taking away 
boy's voice. " Oh, the 
her awa; 
ron took no notice, thinking it a game. 



The voice called again: "But the wolf has 
really, truly, taken her away. Bring her back, 
oh, bring her back." And this time the real 
terror in the voice brought help. 

The wolf, when seen and pursued, had carried 
the child nearly to the gate of the compound. 
When it heard the shouting it dropped its 
burden, possibly, as the servants said, because 
she had in her hurry picked up the child by its 
back, instead of by the neck, and it was difficult 
to carry at a run. 

W here it had been held there was the mark of 
a fang, but no damage had been done to the 
frightened little three-year-old, and I saw her the 
day after playing with her brother at the pre- 
tended game of " wolf, 1 ' and swelling with pride 
at being the heroine of so exciting an adventure. 

How the wolf-boy of Bulandshahr got to his 
cave one can only conjecture ; he may have 
been left there of intention, or he may have been 
stolen from his home by a wolf with the mother- 
hunger keen upon her. That he had been there 
for almost all those seven years of life was, I am 
told, certain. But it seems to me that in my 
category of unconscious cruelties the retaking 
of him should head the list. 



That Night on the Nyanga. 



By David Woodhouse. 

The author — an African trader — while rowing up the river by night, ran right into the middle of a herd 
of hippopotami, who attacked and sank his boat. What happened afterwards is set forth in the story. 




O be attacked by hippopotami and 
to escape without serious injury is 
an experience which may safely be 
described as phenomenal. 

At the time of my narrative I was 
a trader in an out of the-way place some twenty- 
four hours' journey up the Nyanga River, on the 
south west coast of Africa. Mongo Nyanga, as 
my station was called, was surrounded by dense 
and impenetrable forests extending for hundreds 
of miles inland and infested with wild beasts of 
all descriptions. Although it was not exactly the 



suitable for domestic purposes, whilst my gun 
seldom failed to provide me with fresh meat of 
some kind ; and, as the river abounded with 
fish, I managed to pass the time tolerably well. 
But notwithstanding these apparent attractions 
I found it difficult, when trade was almost 
stagnant, to while away the weary hours, and 
life then became a mere existence ; for there 
was the dreaded malarial fever to be contended 
with — that awful disease which leaves one in a 
state of utter collapse. 

It was just after one of these attacks, which 




t roiu a 



THE AUTHOR S STATION AI MONGO NYANGA. 



{Photo. 



kind of place one would select for a holiday 
resort, yet I often call to mind the many happy 
hours I spent there during my sojourn. 

As I happened to be the only European 
resident I devoted the major portion of my 
leisure hours to the cultivation of bananas, 
plantains, sweet potatoes, and other commodities 

\ol. xii. — 6. • 



had laid me low for some days, that I was 
invited to my depot on the coast to pass the 
period of convalescence. As I seldom had an 
opportunity of inhaling the ozone from the salt 
'water, needless to say I was not long in making 
the necessary arrangements for my voyage down 
river to the coast. But the journey was not 



■ - 



1111. WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 



my tli >tate of 

on the which 

However, once 

ivered, and 

a month's 

und for my return to 

enced in 

I* mj Kroomen to do 

Idl s, I decided that 

i immence at sundown 



nd 

ineous 

the I 

a had 
with a 
in the 

■ 

1 cover: g 

ling more 

I had 

the l> '.it manned, and 

irell 

principal 

m the 
■ . . 

pen : 

ring 

iuid n: 

like a mill-slui i only a 

"int. 

• Fth day, which 

thi re < ame a damp, 

list, wh tied thickly on 

'he river. As the moon would 

until the early hours of the morn 

lifficult, and kept my 

the look out for snags 

e 

-lashing paddles as 

•iter, accom- 

al kinr on had 

essicn 

en in slumberland I 

-■t to my senses in 

shaking 

rst impression 

• • sness, 




1 HE Al rril >K, MK. 

From a Photo, by T. 



had fouled some obstruction in the shape of a 
sunken tree or snag — a common occurrence 
when travelling at night. However, I had not 
long to wait before finding out the cause of the 
interruption, and this time there was no mistaking 
the awful nature of our predicament. Crash ! 
crash ! Again and again terrific blows assailed 
our craft, and in the misty half-darkness I saw 
to my horror that we were in the very midst of 
a shoal of hippopotami! The crashes I had 
heard were the blows struck by the infuriated 

animals at the boat ! 

Like a flash there 
came to my mind the 
recollection of a 
terrible affair that 
had happened only a 
short time before. A 
party of three officers 
from H.M.S. Flirt 
who were in the care 
of the representative 
of an English trading- 
house at Mayumba, 
a place thirty miles 
south of Nyanga, had 
gone up the lagoon 
in a whale-boat for a 
day's hippopotamus 
shooting. Their ex- 
pedition met with a 
shocking ending, for 
after wounding one 
of the beasts their 
boat was attacked 
and upset, and out 
of the four English- 
men in her only one 
survived to tell the 
story. Strange to say, 
he was the commander of the gunboat — the 
only one of the party who could not swim. He 
d his life by climbing on the boat as she 
floated on the water bottom upwards after being 
capsized by the angry hippopotami. 

Was the fate of these hapless sportsmen to 
be ours ? 

Presently, after a particularly violent crash, I 
discovered that the side of the boat had been 
stove in, and that it was leaking so badly that 
we could not possibly remain afloat many 
minutes longer. To make matters worse, I had 
been sleeping under a mosquito net, and in my 
rness to get up when the first crash came 
I had somehow become entangled in its folds. 
I could already feel my feet in the rising water, 
ana tne seriousness of the situation dawned 
upon me at once, for it appeared as if I should 
go down helplessly with the sinking boat 



DAVID WOODHOUSE. 

//. Midwood, Ramsey 






THAT NIGHT ON THE NYANGA. 



43 



through my inability to extricate myself from the 
clinging net. 

At last, however, after much struggling I 
managed to gain my liberty, and, feeling some- 
what calmer, I surveyed our position. Although 
the men had been baling frantically with empty 



viciously, with such force that we could hardly 
keep our balance. 

Presently the gunwale of the battered boat 
was almost level with the water. Our position 
was now desperate. Here was I, weak from my 
recent illness and unable to swim a stroke, in 




WE WEKK IN THE VERY MIDST OF A SHOAL OF HIPPOPOTAMI 



gin-cases I saw that the boat was doomed. 
This meant that some of us would probably 
perish in the turbid waters of the river in our 
endeavours to reach the shore. So far as I 
could see we were completely surrounded with 
hippopotami — each, apparently, on mischief 
bent. First at our bow and then at the stern 
the monsters would rise, striking the craft 



a sinking boat in mid-stream, surrounded by a 
herd of savage hippopotami ! Anything like 
shallow water was more than fifty yards away, 
and even supposing I could have got one of my 
terror-stricken crew to consent to pilot me 
ashore, that circle of ferocious beasts had to 
be faced. To mention such an undertaking to 
any one of the Kroomen would have made 






THE WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 






1 resolved to use 

beneath the 

made a plunge clear 

ri to reach the shore. 

k, I was able to grasp hold 

■i what appeared 

md-< .nil struggle, he vainly m 

his unwelcome burden, 



monsters, added to the horrors of a scene which 
will never be effaced from my memory. The 
ony of mind 1 endured during the seemingly 
interminable space of time occupied by our 
progress shorewards was appalling; and to this 
day 1 do not know how we finally managed to 
elude the hippopotami and reach shallow water. 
['here, more dead than alive, we crawled into 
the long grass, in which we hid, with the water 




WE EXPECTED EACH MOMENT TO BE OUR LAST. 



pn him in j'-rky sentences 

ashore, as be could 

II and I i ouia riot. If tl ere spould be 

I id, we v. c»uld both under 

oun r, tor I was determined 

t to be disposed of 
: mat ntually struck out for the 

le of madly excited 
•ami. 

nt to be our last. 

app< ared at our 

and then dis- 

i at our rear almost 

r over us in 

ingry brutes as they 

the terror- 

they endeavoured to 

dly barrier of furious 



almost touching our chins. To add to our 
discomfiture, if that were possible, we were 
tormented for the remainder of that awful night 
bj thousands of voracious mosquitoes, which 
made war upon us until dawn appeared. 

With the advent of daylight we were able to 
take in our situation, and after scrambling and 
crawling through dense bush eventually reached 
terra firma safely. Fortunately no one was 
missing, but what a miserable crew we looked ! 
All that we possessed had sunk with the boat. 
I was. perhaps, the worst equipped of them all. 
1 was in my suit ol pyjamas, just as I had 
emerged from under the mosquito net, and 
hatless and bootless — a nice costume in which 
to face a journey on foot through bush and 
swamp to the coast or the nearest village, if 
such could be found. 

To remain where we were and wait for the 



THAT M(;HT ON THE NYANGA. 




'• WE WERE MET BY THE CHIEF 



tributary of the Nyanga River, we disi 
later. 

Here we were met by the chief, who seemed 
annoyed at the unceremonious manner in which 
we had invaded his domain. However, alter a 
satisfactory explanation on our part, assuring 
him that we only desired his hospitality and 
assistance, and that we were 
hungry and required food, he 
provided for our consump- 
tion the head of a bush-deer, 
together, with some native 
roots called cassava. The 
stuff was certainly not very 
appetizing to gaze upon, but 
then hungry men are not 
fastidious, and as I had now 
been without food for nearly 
twentv-four hours I managed 
to make a hearty meal. 

The loan of a canoe large 
enough for myself and two 
men was readily offered, and 
after considerable haggling 
over the extortionate price 
asked for the hire of the craft 
a bargain was arrived at and 
I proceeded down the creek, 
leaving part of my men be- 
hind, and eventually reached 
Nyanga in a very sorry plight, 
my legs being fearfully cut 
and bruised through my 
wanderings in the bush. 



s**"-' 



passing of a canoe or 
boat was out of the 
question altogether, 
for it might have been 
days before such an 
event occurred. We 
therefore decided to 
push on through the 
bush. This we found 
a most difficult under- 
taking. The under- 
growth was so thick 
that progress was very 
slow, and it was only 
after many hours of 
hard work — during 
which my garments 
suffered considerably 
- that we struck a 
track which even- 
tually landed us in a 
native village on the 
banks of a creek — a 




THE NATIVE VILLAGE WHERE THE AUTHOR WAS PROVIDED WITH FOOD AND A CANOE. 

From a Photo. 







musing account of the trials and tribulations which befell two young Britishers who ran a 
aper in the wilds of British Columbia in its early days. They had " correspondents " who 
ote •. lie personalities and made the office a bear-garden, subscribers and advertisers who 

paid in kind, and at times prowling wild animals upset the daily routine. 




1 1. Winer, I i, B.C., was the 

I ish and I 

-hip to buy. We 

ich ( apital, but 

t town lot in 

per cent. 

at fifteen per 

-ugh 

the purchase. 

for the task before 
by having 
ge, where he had, in his time, < 

y magazine. I, on the 

■ ery little — 

n the < ast, and had acquired 

•he art of printing in 

''a five-pound 

Mome " outfit, so there 



was nothing, naturally, about running a paper 
that I did not know. 

I was to be editor and Mac business manager. 
He was well suited to this position. He was a 
S< otchman, and a good man of business, for he 
had taken a college course of book-keeping. 
Altogether we wen* very pleased with ourselves 
and very confident of success, and, though in 
our opening number we modestly quoted " Tis 
not in mortals to command success," we didn't 
really believe a word of it. 

I h< Winer had been printed on an old press 
of the hand-inking, mangle type, but our prede- 
cessors had, shortly before selling out to us, 
ordered a foot-power, self-inking, bed-and-platen 
press, and this had now arrived at Robson, some 
thirty miles from De Capo, for which distance it 
had to be brought in by mule pack-train. 



HOW WE RAN THE "MINER." 



47 



The press had been invoiced by the manu- 
facturers as " i So-and-so Printing Press, 
K.D.," and the "K.D." had bothered us not 
a little, until we found that the letters meant no 
worse than "knocked down," or taken apart, 
which was convenient, as it enabled us to arrange 
the loads for the mules with the greater ease. 
The flywheel, however, was not "K.D.'d,"and 
weighed some two hundred and fifty pounds. 
We got it loaded at last on the biggest and 
strongest mule in the train, and started for home. 
The mule, Job by name, was very unhappy 
about it. He didn't like the work at all. His 
load would slip from one side of the pack- 
saddle to the other, and wouldn't give him a 
fighting chance. At last he grew tired of it and 
threw up his contract. He hurled himself 
down a steep gravel bank, flywheel and all, and 
there and then died, twelve miles from Da Capo ! 

Mac and I had quite a time of it, getting the 
heavy wheel back on to the trail. Mac derived 
much satisfaction from comparing our labours 
with those of some gentleman in the classics, 
who had some similar trouble of his own. I 
had never known the man myself, and was far 
more interested in wondering how we were 
going to get the thing into town, even when we 
had it once more on the trail. Our struggles 
were watched by two Chinamen, who found us 
more interesting than the task of washing for 
gold in the gulch below. At length one of 
them spoke. 

" Him mule, him heap no good. Him China- 
man, him heap good. How muchee you pay 
him tote him " —here he whirled his arm round 
in a circle — " Sabby ? " 

" Me pay plenty cash," said I — "two dollar. 
Heap good plenty cash. Sabby ? " 

I would have given him ten, with pleasure, 
but never thought he would tackle the job. 

" Two dollar no good," said he ; "John tote 
him floor. Heap cheap. Sabby?" 

" Three," said I. 

" Aw litey," said he, and started off to his 
shack, returning with a very stout pole, on which 
the two Chinamen soon had the flywheel slung, 
and with a man at either end of it started for 
town at a jog trot. They landed in our office in 
half the time that the mule had taken to do 
his part of the journey, and didn't seem a bit 
like dying over it, either. 

This office of ours is, perhaps, worthy of a 
word or two. It was the first frame building 
that Da Capo had to boast of. It had been built 
in the winter, of undressed, unseasoned lumber, 
the space between the boards being covered by 
battens. The heat of summer had caused 
a vast amount of shrinkage, so that it was not at 
all necessary to go to a window to look out of 



doors. This was no great matter when the 
weather was warm, but with the thermometer at 
fifteen degrees below zero, so much airiness had 
its drawbacks, especially when we found, as was 
frequently the case, that our beds were covered 
with two or three inches of drifted snow. Hut 
the snow was dry, and we soon got used to it. 
But when it came to "sticking type" with a 
blizzard concentrated on one's left elbow, whilst 
one's right side was slowly browning with the 
heat of a red-hot box-stove placed within two 
feet of the type-case, it really did seem as if 
things might be a little more comfortable. 

We began our career as journalists, however, 
in the spring, so that these little incidents did 
not come along to annoy us until everything 
was in good running order. 

The organization of our staff of correspon- 
dents was not an easy matter. They seerced to 
think that any time was a t^ood time to send in 



their 



copy. 



The matter they sent us, too, 



was frequently of a nature that we hardly cared 
to publish as it stood, whilst any editing was 
regarded as a personal insult, to be instantly 
resented by the resignation of their " position 
on the staff." It was Mac's idea that we should 
try " to draw them together," and with this end 
m view he urged them, when in town, always to 
look upon the Miner office as their head-quarters 
—as their home, in fact. This invitation was 
heartily accepted. But as our correspondents 
seldom or never came to town except on business 
connected with the purchase of spirituous 
liquors, in largish quantities, for immediate 
personal consumption, our home - life was 
sometimes not so quiet and uneventful as it 
might have been. Our Kokanee correspondent, 
for instance — a young and genial Englishman, 
six foot three in his socks, with twenty stone 
resting on the soles of his boots — always showed 
the home-like feeling that possessed him by 
upsetting a newly-filled case of brevier type on 
to the editorial table. One of our printers- 
wages were seven and a half dollars a day then 
— could sort it out in a couple of days, and the 
change of work was a relief to him. 

The deficiencies of our correspondents were 
compensated for, to some extent, by the cheer- 
fulness and alacrity with which the general 
public supplied us with due notice of the occur- 
rence of any event of interest. 

Early one afternoon I was out for a stroll, not 
a quarter of a mile from the office, having taken 
a rifle with me on the off-chance of shooting 
grouse, when, on rounding a bend of the trail, I 
met two miners of my acquaintance, who were 
making for town at the top of their speed. 

" Halloa ! " cried one. 

" There you are," shouted the other. 






rin: WIDE WORLD maoa/.ine. 



1. trying stop them. 

ml thinking that 
>l 1 
. 1 « > v\ them, when the man in the rear 
td .u\\\ ejaculati 

\- I involunt 1 round I was 

nd that where 1 had first halted, 
'wr tip bears ! 
me they reared up on 
rs and pi battle, 

time to think ol running away, and 
iping had I <;• 
lit of a hear, slow as it 
I carries the animal over 
;nd at a that a man cannot keep 

I d, the only way to 
:1k- pertinai ittentions of a grizzly 

. ariety) is to climb 
run at full I along the side 

hill, when the creature is hampered 
position in which it has to 
el to foil iw on your trail. 
I at 1 my rifle, a '440 Marlin 

d let fly at the heart of the big 
The bullet struck its left wrist 
and deflected from the body. 

With a grunt of pain and anger it dropped 
• but, finding its paw broken, 
E ). In the meantime the smaller and 
making for me, so I had a 
• him, aiming over the top of the head, 
ilders, in the hope of breaking 
1 k. 
In the hurry of the moment, however, I fired 
and the result was that the animal fell, 
I, with a scar all the way up his forehe; 
■ miners had turned on hearing the 
and one of them rushed up to the 
ear, inl nidi him off with his 

. which he had drawn from his pack. 

_ t within striking distance 

inded b n his hind legs ready 

The blow was warded off 

ft upward motion of thi irm and 

{ ito the brush. 

I could not fire, as th< tly 

' • I turned my 

t moment to the bear with the 

hich had 1. wling the while 

- und. It hots 

king the right shoulder-blade 

1 the first, and by the mi ich- 

brain, through ti 
•id. 

fell with a terrific thump, and I was 

and see whal . on 

:id me ; for by this time the young bear 



hail attacked the man who had had the axe, and 
was some lour or five feet behind me. 

The two of them were sparring very prettily 
for an opening, the man with a sheath-knife in 
his h.md, the hear with nothing but his 
enormous claws. The miner was getting blown 
ami flustered, but his opponent seemed as cool 
as .1 cucumber, though very cross about things 
in general. 

It was marvellous the dexterity and agility 
the animal displayed, and it seemed a shame 
to interfi 

One of the combatants did not appear to 
think so, however, as he was shouting for 
help at the top of his voice, instead of 
keeping his breath for a better purpose. 

The movements of the two were so swift and 
erratic that it was impossible to seize a moment 
when they were sufficiently still to make it safe 
for me to fire. 

Whilst the three of us were engaged in a 
kind of " Here we go round the mulberry bush " 
dance, the other man managed to get his 
revolver from his pack and suddenly joined in 
the fun. Whilst we were engaging Bruin's 
attention on either side he stepped up behind 
and, placing the muzzle of his weapon at the 
base of the skull, fired, and the battle was won. 

It was fortunate that he took a hand in the 
game just when he did, as I found afterwards 
that I had fired all the cartridges in my 
magazine, and had been trying all the time to 
get a shot with my rifle empty ! The whole 
affair did not last five minutes, but, as the critics 
sometimes say of a poor play, there was not a 
dull moment in it. 

1 was deeply disappointed in my mining 
acquaintances, however. When I thanked them 
for having been so thoughtful as to come directly 
to the Miner office and give notice of the 
vicinity of the mother-bear and her grown cub 
they frankly admitted that they had never 
thought of doing so, but when they had run up 
:ist the creatures had no idea of doing any- 
thing but of getting out of reach with the 
utmost dispatch — "at their earliest possible 
convenience," so to speak. 

Our subscribers were rather a trial sometimes. 
It was hard to satisfy everybody. Early on in 
our career a kindly friend told us : — 

' You boys are too blame perlite. The 
is fust-rate. Fust-rate. A high-flyer, but 
there ain't enough pers'nal int'rest in it. At 
t, not to my mind. No, sir ! Fellers like 
to be took noti< e of, so's they can send a copy- 
to the old folks back East." 

We took the hint, and our two columns of 
'" Personal Items ; ' were filled with such para- 
graphs as : — 



HOW WE RAN THE "MINER." 



49 



" Rancher Byles " —we always used a title of 
some sort — " has been enlarging his premises. 
He has recently added two chicken-coops to his 
already capacious hen run. They are much 



his friends at home. Our " Personal Items " 
and our "Mining News in Brief' brought in 
many a good dollar in this way. These small 
amounts of money were especially useful, seeing 




" HE FIKE[>. AN!) THE RATTLE WAS WON. 



appreciated by his three fine broods of Minorca 
chicks." 

Or : "It was Lumberman Silas Jones's sixty- 
eighth birthday Wednesday. Many happy 
returns, Si, but you mustn't be so reckless 
toboganning, or all our wishes won't help you. 
We hear, too, that you're going to get married. 
Well, Silas, it's never too late to mend, is it? " 

Or again : " Contractor William Brusch has 
secured the job of painting a gold stripe round 
Cap. Higgins's splendid launch the Angostura. 
It is to be of real gold leaf. It is enterprise 
such as this, Cap, that hasfcmade the West the 
place it is." 

This may not have been art, but it paid. 
Probably every one of the gentlemen mentioned 
ordered five or ten extra copies of the issue in 
which his name appeared and sent them off to 

Vol. xii. — 7. 



that most of our accounts were paid in kind. 
Our subscribers were, nearly all of them, liberal 
advertisers, but we had to " take out in trade " the 
sums they owed us. Our printers and ourselves 
boarded at various hotels as the necessity arose 
for their accounts to be settled. Boots, clothes, 
cord-wood, pipes and tobacco, necessities and 
luxuries alike, were received in exchange for 
space in our advertising columns. On one occa- 
sion, being short of funds, and Mac, whose duty 
it was to make collections, being away on 
business, I went round to our doctor to ask for 
the amount of his account, which had not been 
presented for payment for some months. 

" Well;" said he, " I've been doctoring and 
mining in this American Continent for twenty 
years and over and I've never paid for the inser- 
tion of my professional card in the local paper 






nil w [DE VVOR] l> MAGAZINE 






t jU . \ ome natural, somehow. 

metimes to find 

\\ lien, in the 

.1 month only 

• iningthe newspapers was often 

when ever) 

.mi had left 



the Revelstoke Star was printed. Its contents. 
The foolish and glaring incompetency of its 
editor and his staff. Our contempt for its 
opinion of us. (After a round or two we used 
this item only as a last resource. The Star 
man hit luck, hard and above the belt. We 
had taken over the quarrel with the Miner, but 
soon losl interest in it.) 




I U I- I'l PAID IN KINi). 



ial climate : v, hen 
ly nothing going on in town 
■ the h inding n< es 

This list was ol considerable 

i.l tei ' ; < ity of th i >ad to 

e our riminal I in not 

with the outside 
■ iffii ials. Its own 

. blind id pitalists 

lich prevented thi rr 
I louring 
i 
r for allowing 
f him. (W 

of 

' 4'i and 

per on which 



The 
The 

and 



hey 



4. The high prosperity of Da Capo, 
very ample reasons for such prosperity, 
enterprise of its inhabitants, both persona 
collective. 

5. The extortion of the Customs. ( 
swooped down on three of our leading trades- 
men and confiscated their shipments of winter 
supplies, lining them, also, some thirty thousand 
dollars, just because the goods had been in- 
voiced "In plain figures'' (below cost), to save 
the Customs officials time; anal trouble in calcu- 
lating and collecting the duties.) The uncon- 
stitutionality (.Mao's word) of taxes in general. 

6. The hopeless state of chaos in which the 
mining laws were^kept by an irresponsible, 

ik, knock-kneed, self-seeking and hopelessly 
rotten Government. The engaging qualities of 
any member of the same who might be visiting 
our neighbourhood. 

I'.ui even with resources such as these we 



HOW WE RAN THE -MINER." 



5i 



were sometimes short of copy. I remember 
that late one Eriday evening we had yet a 
column and a half to make up. There was no 
news and not an exchange in the office. Lyell's 
" Geology "—a work, by the way, invaluable to 
us — had already contributed a page and a bit to 
the issue. There was nothing for it but to make 
news ; so I resurrected a Swedish prospector, 
who had been lost in the hills, and made him 
give an account of how his life had been saved 
in a miraculous manner after a fall from a 
precipice. This interview was largely reprinted 
in the " patent insides " of American papers, a 
glory seldom attained by any but an American 
writer. 

It must not be imagined, from my account, 
that the life of the newspaper man in the 
wilderness is entirely devoid of humour. Old 
Hoyle, for instance, was an unfailing source of 
amusement — and annoyance. He would wait 
outside every morning, until the office fire was 
lighted, and he would never leave us, except for 
meals, till the last ashes had cooled in the stove. 
He had a hundred dainty little traits which 
endeared him to us. It was through him, 
though, curiously enough, that I came nearer to 
doing murder than I have ever been, before or 
since. 

It was two o'clock one Saturday morning, 
and we were late with the paper. I had the 
last page on the press, and had been pedalling 
hard to get running at full speed, when 
Mac, who, every now and again, would renew 
the ink on the ink-disc, misjudged his time, 
and the hand-roller he was using was caught 
by the press-rollers as they flashed up- 
wards and twisted out of his grasp. It flew 
up into the air and knocked the lamp from 
the hook by which it was hanging, so 
that it fell, with a sickening scrunch, right 
between the platen and the page of set 
type ! 

The machine stopped instantly, with a 
terrible jar. Mac and I gazed at each other in 
hopeless despair, whilst old Hoyle, taking in the 
situation at a glance, edged nearer to the door, 
and blandly murmured : — 

"That's one way of throwing light on the 
subject ! " 

He was out of sight by the time I reached 
the door. 

Ten minutes afterwards I returned to the 
office, my hands still unstained with the life- 
blood of a fellow-creature, to find that three 
lines of type only had been injured. Even the 



press was in going order, and a quarter of an 
hour's work set all to rights. 

The old man was in his accustomed place the 
following morning. 

Some time during the winter it became our 
duty to chronicle the death of the first person 
of importance who had died in tin- town. I it- 
was a capitalist upon whose disposition to invest 
his money in the development of the country 
we had largely built. It was a great blow to us 
when these hopes were rendered unavailing by 
his sudden death. It was also a matter for 
our most earnest consideration when the 
proprietor of the hotel next door to our 
office handed us a wire from the deceased's 
next-of-kin which contained the request that 
Mr. X— -'s body should be embalmed and 
forwarded to Toronto. 

This was embarrassing. It was impossible, 
for the sake of the town's credit, to admit that 
we did not possess a professional embalmer. 
We wished to curry favour with the inheritor of 
so much wealth, in the hope that he might 
become interested in our mining industries. A 
very great deal of thought was expended on 
the matter, and it was at length decided to 
carry the coffin into our back-yard which 
at the time was the only enclosed space in 
Da Capo — and freeze the body hard and solid. 
The thermometer registered ten below zero 
(Fahrenheit), and it was not long before the 
task was accomplished. To make assurance 
doubly sure we went one step farther, and 
gradually pouring water into the coffin, with 
intervals sufficiently long for the water to 
freeze, soon had the corpse enclosed in a solid 
block of ice, in which form it was shipped to 
its destination, and, so I believe, gave the 
greatest satisfaction. 

I learnt one valuable lesson from this news- 
paper work, which the reader may perhaps 
accept as a parting gift. 

I have said that Mac was a man of business. 
He had a positive genius for book-keeping. 
Every week-end his balance would come out 
as regular as clockwork. There was never any 
trouble about it. 

"System, my boy," said he; "system's every- 
thing in a job of this sort." 

It was not until long after we had dissolved 
partnership, with mutual good-will, that I dis- 
covered the secret of his system ! 

He had a ledger account headed :— - 

Dr. Cash. -Cr. 

Short — —or — — Over. 







FlUlordOja/) 



An account of the philanthropic pawnshop of Paris, the Mont de Piete\ showing the difference 
between "Uncle" of England and "My Aunt" of France. 




HAVE always thought that there is 

_ radii ally wrong with the 

of pawnbroking in England. 

■nd even legislate against, 

rs, but we license and back up 

: authority of the State a system 

a privileged body to prey upon 

of the poor and needy. The 

with two or three 

ilute security, and five 

ent of risk comes 

But 1 roker has more than absolute 

rids above one third or, at 

:lf of the mar 1 . lue of a 

est rate ol terest is twenty 

.mliler th<- pledge, and coi 

the pledger, the higher 

of man;, j ment, ware- 
than the layman reali/ 
■•nbrokers must be enor- 



mous, and it is strange that no philanthropist 
has thought of placing easy loans within the 
reach of the poor, when so much attention is 
directed towards the solution of such hopeless 
problems as housing, old-age pensions, etc. I 
believe that, apart from philanthropy, a reason- 
able return might be obtained by investors who 
are willing to organize pawnbroking at some- 
thing like bank-rate. 

In this connection it is instructive to study 
the foreign system, which was originally started 
as pure philanthropy, and still aspires, under the 
regis of Oovernment, to accommodate the masses. 
The first Mont de Fiete was founded in Italy in 
the fifteenth century under one of the Popes, 
who hoped that the extortions of Hebrew usurers 
might be checked thereby. A number of wealthy 
persons provided the capital, and only sufficient 
interest was to be charged to pay bare expenses. 
The noble family of Medici assisted the enter- 
prise, and their arms — three golden balls — have 



A NATIONAL PAWNSHOP. 



53 



been adopted ever since as the pawnbroker's 
escutcheon all over the world. The movement 
was thoroughly successful, and soon spread to 
the Netherlands, France, Spain, and elsewhere, 
but, oddly enough, has never reached this 
country. The Monts de Piete have had many 
vicissitudes and have not always been spared in 
time of war, as their philanthropic character 
should have given reason to expect. Napoleon 
Buonaparte plundered them relentlessly wher- 
ever his arms triumphed in Italy, and a Pope 
was forced to lay hands upon those in his 
dominions to satisfy the indemnity exacted by 
the French. 

Most P>ench institutions are stultified with 



tive generosity of his establishment. But when 
I raised the question of privacy, he seemed 
amazed that it should command any import- 
ance. In his eyes the furtive demeanour i.f an 
Englishman when about to pledge his watch 
appeared as incomprehensible as shame would 
be in a person about to cash a cheque at a 
bank. After all, it is a legitimate and honour- 
able transaction. The man who pawns his 
watch gives ample security and has no need for 
concealment, unless poverty is necessarily 
shameful. After all, it is probably a question of 
national temperament. An Englishman, who is 
utterly indifferent about being seen on tie 
threshold of a public-house, will only enter a 




From a Photo. by\ 



ENTERING THE MONT DE PIETE TO PAWN AN ARTICLE. 



[Paul Geniaux. 



red tape, and the Monts de Piete of the 
Republic would certainly be far more useful 
to the masses if they were conducted on more 
human, common-sense principles. But, with all 
its faults, the Mont de Piete of Paris is far and 
away in advance of any similar institution in the 
world. By the courtesy of the director, I was 
permitted to go over the whole establishment 
in the Rue des Blancs Manteaux and cross- 
examine him about the administration of his 
department. 

Pfe had evidently devoted much careful study 
to the various systems of pawn broking in divers 
countries, and was quite convinced of the 
superiority of the Mont de Piete as administered 
in France. He plied me with pamphlets and 
statistics, all of which illustrated the compara- 



pawnshop with all the precautions of a burglar. 
A Frenchman, on the other hand, will calmly 
join the crowd in a public building, wait his turn 
in a file of fellow-sufferers, and cheerfully submit 
to interrogations in sublime disregard of his 
audience. 

The procedure of pawning is as follows : You 
enter a large hall, where crowds of people are 
standing about, some with bundles to be con- 
fided to " my aunt," as the French dub our 
"uncle," others waiting patiently for the comple- 
tion of the somewhat tedious transaction. All 
along one end of the room is a long counter, 
like that of a bank, only to be approached in 
single file between narrow rails. Behind this 
counter sit a number of solemn, prosperous- 
looking clerks, who scrutinize the clients, take in 






Nil. Wild. WORLD MAGAZINE. 







• 



THE VALUERS A r \Y< I 



THE SMALLEST SUM OFFERED IS HALF A CROWN. 



\l\iul CiUiiaux. 



_ 5. and hand out numbered metal discs, 

, i tickets. Having secured 

i wait the good pleasure 

lers, which means that you must 

t huddled among unsavoury persons on 

if about the hall fur nearly 

The val upy an inner chambei 

IV deliberately. Though 

enabled thi m to 

e ince, they 

rything 

• 

t h i r t 

- 



longer. If it sells for more than the amount of 
the loan, as is almost invariably the case, you 
are entitled to receive the difference if you have 
the time and patience to come and claim it. 

While we are waiting for our number to be 
called out let us go to another part of the great 
building and witness one of the auctions. These 
take place in a dismal room, from which light 
and air have been in great measure excluded. 
An indefinable stench of musty clothes and 




N OF UN REDEEMED F'LEDGES. 



{Paul C/nraux, 



A NATIONAL PAWNSHOP. 



55 



unwashed humanity appears to have become 
chronic. Bales and boxes of bed-linen are 
spread out upon a circular counter, behind 
which a couple of clerks walk about to exhibit 
the lots and identify the purchasers. Behind 
them, again, the auctioneer sits at a desk with 
a hammer in his hand, while another clerk 
beside him records each transaction laboriously 
in a ledger. Most of the customers are Jew 
dealers , but there is also a fair sprinkling of 
the thrifty poor on the look-out for bargains. 
As each lot is put up a clerk reads out the 
amount for which it was originally pawned, and 
bidding generally 
begins at that 
figure. 

On our way back 
to the great hall 
we may look in at 
the desks where 
pledges are re- 
newed. This opera- 
tion also requires 
an undue time and 
many formalities 
of no particular in- 
terest. But the 
director will pre- 
sently entertain 
you with plenty of 
anecdotes on the 
subject. You may 
see a venerable 
umbrella, for which 
the owner has 
regularly renewed 
his ticket during 
the last forty-eight 
years ! You may 
also hear of a cot- 
ton curtain, which 
remained in pawn 
from 1823 to 1872. 
Thirty - five francs 
were expended on 
interest, and it 
Only fetched five 
francs when at last 
it was sold. 

Your number 
has now been called out in the central hall, 
so you must make your way to a pigeon-hole 
and hand in your check. An official men- 
tions the sum offered, and you may take 
it or leave it. Haggling, expostulation, and 
entreaty are alike unavailing. If you accept, 
you are publicly catechized as to your name, 
address, occupation, etc. These are written 
out very deliberately on a coloured form and 



then read out in a loud voice for entry in a 
ledger, amid the comments of the crowd, ribald 
or good-natured as the case may be. If your 
loan is above fifteen francs you must also pro- 
duce documents to prove your identity. This 
affords a fairly satisfactory safeguard against 
stolen goods, which the director told me are 
very rarely received. Out of one million seven 
hundred and fifty thousand watches taken 
during five years only one thousand two 
hundred and seventy were proved to have been 
stolen. 

public is 



The general 




A COKNEK OK THE M1SI H I 
From a Photo. 



not admitted behind 
the scenes, but the 
courteous director, 
justly proud of his 
establishment, is 
always ready to 
show you over it 
you come to him 
with proper recom- 
mendations. And 
the sight is cer- 
tainly worth an 
effort. The Paris 
Mont de Piete is 
the largest pawn- 
shop in the world. 
At the central 
building there are 
nearly four miles of 
passages flanked 
by walls of stored 
pledges, piled in 
serried rows right 
up to the ceilings. 
Each package has 
a number corre- 
sponding to the 
ledger downstairs, 
and the system is 
so perfect that the 
officials can go 
direct to any object 
that may be called 
for at any time. 
As a matter of 
fact, owing to the 
red tape which is 
so universal in 
French offices, considerable time is wasted in 
redeeming a pledge, but it is actually fetched 
very quickly : no sooner has it been found than 
it is sent spinning downstairs along an inclined 
plane. On a busy day it is interesting to stand 
beside t.his and watch the torrent of parcels 
rolling downstairs. 

When I was being conducted through the 
corridors of cheap jewellery I could not help 



IMi lUSi I 1.1' DGEM l>l 

by Paul Geniaux. 









nil; WIDE W0R1 n MAGAZINE. 



Id have been to slip a 

But presently 

und, and tin n 1 noticed 

I themselv< s 

imn and followed all my 

th tlu- utmost vigilance. How 

mong bulky goods 

■ 
1 

• 
id that 
all 

The 
the 

tly 
When 
in the 
moi 

:' their 

n a 

uniform, which is 

before th< 

lin ami 
tak ;>ar- 

All pie 

Ullds 

I ac- 

■iied by at 

attend- 

nor- 

mous iron d 

emnly 

unlocked and la ly pulled open. We 

ne - floored room 

5 of iron doors on 

of them was opened to 

rage, but I was not 

r. My companion told 

<\ pounds had just 

pledge, which 

I r had had to 

o :itral hall and wait about 

it. No one need 

private rooms 

but it was very 

1 for th • in the 

ould attract 

n from the crowd. It is even 

y that the 




From a Plwto. by] the jewellery department. 



owner's name is known only to the director, 
who is the most discreet man in the world. 

Great precautions are also taken when it is 
necessary to transfer pledges either to the 
branch establishments or to special warehouses. 
Special vans of exceeding strength are utilized, 
and a more careful system of receipts is 

employed than 
even the Post 
Office exacts for 
registered letters. 
The jewels are all 
put into a basket, 
which the man in 
charge must never 
let out of his 
hands during the 
transit. 

The problem of 
storage is the 
most serious which 
confronts a public 
p awnbroker's 
establ i s h ment. 
Even in so enor- 
mous a building as 
the central Mont 
de Piete of Paris 
it is impossible to 
find accommoda- 
tion for nearly all 
the pledges. In- 
deed, three per 
cent, interest has 
to be charged for 
warehousing in 
addition to the 
ordinary interest 
— an unfortunate 
fact which has in- 
duced thoughtless 
persons to bring 
accusations of usury, though the total is only 
seven per cent. The difficulty is, of course, 
largely increased by the selfishness of persons 
who utilize a comparatively philanthropic in- 
stitution for the purpose of warehousing pianos, 
motors, and other bulky possessions, at a cheap 
rate. It has, indeed, become quite a fashion 
for people to leave their bicycles at the Mont de 
Piete when they go out of town. I saw what 
looked like acres and acres of bicycles, not only 
huddled in regiments about the floor of one 
huge room, but even hung up in the air in 
flying squadrons at all sorts of unexpected 
turns. 

Another mania of the hour which makes its 
presence felt in the pawnshop is amateur 
photography. There are whole streets of hand- 



[Paul Geniaux. 



A NATIONAL PAWNSHOP. 



57 




From a Photo, by] 



"acres and ackes of bicvcles." 



[Paul Geniaux. 



cameras, some carefully sewn up in linen and 
labelled "fragile," others in neat canvas cases, 
and others in rude cardboard boxes. 

Statistics show that garments are still far 



bed-linen generally. I saw whole mountains of 
them disappearing away into the darkness. 
Here is, perhaps, the most appalling evidence of- 
the painful poverty which this poor man's bank 




From a Photo. by] 



K WHOLE STREETS OF HAND-CAMERAS. 



\Paul Gtniaux. 



and away the most numerous class of pledge, as 
they have been ever since pawnshops came into 
existence. Next come mattresses, sheets, and 

Vol. xii.-8. 



struggles to relieve. The director pointed out 
to me that there were corresponding advantages, 
as every mattress is carefully fumigated on 






THE WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 






must have a useful influence 
upon the hygiene of ti No fewer than 

hundred and seventy 
d in a vc.u. and no ■ 

able to the 

\ ■ l" the pinch ol poverty 

i which sixty three 
hun- 

i e 

naturally 

minent item. I 
u r i o 
^i ; i which 

I 

nr dt 

ten 
in. Th 
h a ve not e n 

ured w i t h 
pad .. but 
hung up (.hi boai 

2 

i n a 

museum. Imagine 

th which 

i dri\e a poor 

g about 

th- op for 

an hour and sub- 

ni: Ireary I i 

nd public 

in the 

half 

on a 




w n 

director 

ry in- 
inark 
iile exhibiting the minute statistics 
he pointed out that the 
nun dep -itc-d in a yeai 

'4 the poverty of the 
put forward the apparent 
the number of pl< 

<<f the poorest 

>n< eption of 

thril i .-rtain number 

When they get plenty of 

' - II r.-pair to the 

ire incapable of eking 

: to week. But so 

into a little money they 

edges. The consequence is 



I KOKKS AND SPOONS ARE TAKEN. 

From a Photo, by Paul Geniaux. 



that, in a prosperous year, the same pledge will 
go in and out again ten or twenty times, each of 
which figures in the statistics as a separate 
transaction. In a lean year, on the other hand, 
the pledge goes in once and remains there 
because the owner is unable to redeem it. In 
that ci>e it is entered only once instead of ten 
or twenty times, and the total is accordingly 

reduced. 

It is also im- 
portant to observe, 
for reasons which 
I will presently ex- 
plain, that the poor 
are by no means 
the only clients - 
or even the chief 
client s — o f the 
pawnbroker. In 
an average year 
the working classes 
(not necessarily the 
poorest) are only 
responsible for 
56*5 per cent, of 
the pledges, and 
out of every hun- 
dred pounds ad 
vanced they only 
take twenty - five 
pounds twelve 
shillings. No 
doubt, when we 
patrol the long 
corridors of the 
Mont de Piete, our 
attention is especi- 
ally attracted by the 
thousands of par- 
cels of poor cloth- 
ing, the mountains 
of mattresses, the 
forests of poor cot- 
ton umbrellas, the 
phalanxes of well-worn sewing-machines, and 
other evidences of penury and fruitless struggles. 
But we must not forget the treasury of precious 
stones in the basement, the extensive collection 
of works of art, pictures, statuary and objects of 
vertu, the inlaid tables, the gilded mirrors, the 
rare violins and countless instruments of music, 
which all point to a very different order of 
clients. These are the needy as opposed to 
the poor, the reckless and extravagant rather 
than the struggling toilers, and the question 
arises how far they are deserving objects of 
philanthropy. 

Experiments have been made in certain 
French towns (Grenoble, for instance) of lending 



A NATIONAL PAWNSHOP. 



59 



on pledges without charging interest. As the 
Mont de Piete costs a large sum to maintain, 
such experiments are merely a form of charity at 
the expense either of the ratepayers or of private 



than to accept it as a dole, either from the State 
or from individuals. 

I set out by protesting that English pawn- 
brokers charge excessiv< interest ; but I do not 




From a I hoto. 



\l\u<l Lit'nitiHX. 



subscribers. The conclusion arrived at has been 
that, if the enterprise is conducted on business 
lines and deals with all comers, three-quarters of 
the benefit will go to undeserving members of 
the middle class, and the balance will be dis- 
tributed in such small sums that the poor will 
scarcely realize the relief. If, on the other 
hand, the remission of interest is confined to 
the necessitous and deserving, minute inquiries 
are unavoidable and the pawners are pauperized. 
Most self-respecting persons would prefer to 
pay the fair cost of their accommodation rather 



on to advocate the introduction of Monts 
Piete under the auspices either of the 
State or of Municipalities, for I believe such 
undertakings are forbidden by the laws of 
Political Economy, and are 

practice, 
enterprise 
book of 

earn handsome dividends 
on absolute security, relieving borrowers from 
usury in a paternal rather than an avuncular 
spirit. 



go 
de 



and vexatious in 
reason why private 
a leaf out of the 
establishments and 



both cumbrous 

But I see no 

should not take 

the Continental 



THE STEAM=SLAVER. 

, \i\ \\ 1 1 roiS FORSTER, LATE OF THE [MPERIAL CHINESE N.WY. 

n command of a small Chinese gunboat Captain Forster received orders to capture or 
Der engaged in the coolie slave-trade. He sought and found his quarry, 
. ht to a finish with her in the teeth of a rapidly-rising typhoon. 




W A - ing then too you 

inclined to think, to ba\ e 
iced in charg< ol even the 
• I was in command 
when ;i i an official report 

; th( die slaver Fatchoy was 

hands. ft 
bj an 
- a 
the 
His Excellency 
nd 
ssel had b< 
rtain ( Chinese 
■ irbidden 
I 

if I 

i I 
jur- 

• 

•>rl 

_ 

I ■ 

■ 




INTO 1 HEM 



ing my little steamer to the bottom before I 
could do so ! But I imagined it was far more 
probable that I should neither see nor hear 
anything of such a craft. Whether the Chinese 
authorities were justified in taking such drastic 
action as this the following (condensed) copy 

of the report will 
show : — 

The faU hoy left 
Macao (about thirty- 
eight miles from 
i 1 ong - Kong) on 
August 25th with a 
thousand and five 
coolies on board. All 
went well till the 
fourth day out. On 
tins day a cry of " A 
riot I " was raised. 
The coolies were 
fighting their armed 
guards, one ol whom 
went overboard 
while the other took 
to the rigging. Then 
the coolies rushed to 
the Chinese cooking- 
galley, but the mate 
and second mate 
commenced to fire 
into them from the 
bridge, shoot in^ r 
ilow i) three, and thus 
quieted the disturb- 
ance. 

The officers after- 
wards assembled and 
seized a number of 
the coolies, tying 
them by their long 
queues (pigtails) to 
tlie iron barricades, 
bars, and gratings 
ai d sending the rest 
below. Then more 
than one hundred 
and thirty were put 
in irons. '1 he next 
morning the Spanish 
captain had them 
broughl up from be- 
low, some bags of 
rice were placed on 
deck, and the prison- 
ers were laid across 



the steam-slaver. 



61 



the bags face downwards and stripped of all their 
clothing. They were then fearfully flogged by two men, 
each keeping time with their long lashes, the blood 
flowing at every blow . . . The screams of the tortured 
coolies were dreadful. After each wretched creature had 
been flogged brine was rubbed into his wounds and he 
was carried below again. 

The vessel arrived at Angers on September 9th and 
remained there two days, proceeding from there to 
Mauritius, where she took in water and coal, the ship 
meantime remaining in quarantine. From Mauritius 
she went to the Cape of Good Hope. At all these 
ports the coolies were kept below, and while coaling was 
going on the hatches were kept closed, the hospitals for 
the sick being entirely closed up also ! \ et at this 
time the heat was intolerable even in the open air ! The 
sufferings of the coolies on this voyage were unimagin- 
able. Ihey were flogged, kicked, beaten, and generally 
treated with the greatest cruelty. The filth and stench 
on board were horrible. The hospitals were never once 
cleansed during the whole voyage. All the horrors of 
the African slave trade, not excepting the awful "middle 
passage," never surpassed those of this Chinese steam- 
slaver Fatchoy. More than eighty deaths occurred 
during the voyage — over 8 per cent, of the total number 
put on board at Macao ! These deaths were due to 
floggings, general cruelty, and the horribly insanitary 
state of the ship. 

On reaching Ilavannah on December 1st the Fatchoy 
was not put into quarantine, but proceeded at once to 
discharge her living cargo ! 

After I had perused this document I very 
quickly made up my mind not to allow a second 
such floating hell to enter on a similar career if 
I could possibly prevent it. I earnestly hoped 
that chance would send this sinister stranger 
across my little vessel's path before she got clear 
of Chinese waters and anchored in Macao 
roads to receive her living freight from the great 
barracoons there. 

One sultry evening, a few days afterwards, I 
was cruising about looking for my quarry. The 
wild-looking sunset presaged elemental strife in 
my weather-wise old pilot's opinion, but, as the 
barometer had not then fallen to any consider- 
able extent, I had declined to allow him to 
shape a course for shelter, remarking : — 

" Certainly not, till I have overhauled those 
tankars (fishermen) yonder, Chop-dollar ! They 
seem to be in a great hurry, judging by the way 
they are tugging and pushing at those long 
sweeps. I think some fresh fish wouldn't come 
amiss for dinner either, eh ? " 

The old pilot grinned approval, but became 
stolidly wooden in expression again on recollect- 
ing that " buying fish " was frequently my term 
for extracting information. 

Now, I had been much beholden to certain 
tankar fisher-folk for valuable information on 
previous occasions — and 1 had twice chartered 
their vessels for special work at a remunerative 
figure in consequence. Partly from this cause 
and partly because the very much better half 
of the nominal owner of the particular pair of 



boats I had espied— a more than middle-aged 
tankar lady — had been pleased to take a 
grotesque fancy to the " young Inglesh foreign 
devil," I was always welcome both to informa- 
tion and counsel when I met them. I need 
only add that the lady was an almost exact 
facsimile of the amiable Sally Brass as depicted 
by the late George Cruikshank's pencil, and 
in bad weather was much given to sporting a 
second-hand pilot jacket, red comforter, and 
Blucher boots, in addition to her ordinary 
Chinese garments. She kept her husband well 
in hand by an occasional application of her 
long wooden, brass bowled pipe to his shaven 
crown, and it will, therefore, be clearly seen 
that this good lady was quite "a character" in 
her way. So many sage suggestions, indeed, 
did she make that in time I became quite pro- 
ficient in Chinese fishing lore, and the ways 
of the Delta folk— a thing by no means to be 
despised, as many an anxious and badgered gun- 
boat commander could testify. For a European 
officer has little chance of doing much good on 
inland Chinese waters. 

When we came near enough to the fishing 
junks I had the gig lowered and boarded the 
nearest. In the fading light I could just make 
out a tall female figure, to which several layers 
of jackets and many other things, built very 
wide, loosely adhered, ending in a stout pair 
of second hand ammunition boots, the jackets 
being surmounted by a wisp of hair, gummed and 
twisted "tea-pot" fashion, beneath a funnel- 
on-a-saucer-shaped bamboo hat, having the in- 
evitable pipe sticking out below the brim, 
and a red handkerchief tied above it ! 
Then I knew that I had made no mistake — 
those charms and feminine graces could only 
belong to one tankar-pau in the whole Delta — 
and so it was the fair Sally herself who welcomed 
me. 

Sally was effu ive. "Chin-chin, Capitan," 
she said. " My no have see you long time ! 
How you do ? First chop, eh ? " 

I assured the fair speaker that I was first 
chop, and then came to the point with :— 

" Tell me, Sally, where is the new piecy 
steamer for ' catch coolie pidgin ' ? " (the coolie 
slave trade). 

Sally's little black, beady eyes twinkled as 
she tilted the place where her fair nose ought to 
have been in the air. 

" Choi ! Why for you think my can savey, 
Capitan ? " 

But aware that this was only extreme modesty 
on the lady's part, I ended the matter promptly : 
" For ten good reasons that I have here, 
Sally." 

And I clinked the silver dollars in my pockets 



2 



1 III: \\ll>l. WORLD MAGAZINE. 



Then, in order to give time for my 
. 1 picked up a lighted joss 

:n the little altar in the stern and 
d the junk. 

amer now, Sally ? " 1 
v. 

: > 1 .una. Capitan. He have 

>ide just new ' Flenche- 

" But more better you 

lenty big and big gun have got— 

- lun-chi ifour little steamer 

I.) 
" 1 1 . that she is the ' catch 

. Sally ? " 
•• i .so he no can go Hong-Kong 

t, go Macao. 1 le no likee 
m." And S ointed her pipe at her 

timid spouse with a derisive grin. 

ur husband was not allowed to 
• the steamer into Macao Roadstead you 
will earn that ten-dollar fee by putting me on his 
- Ily ? " 
"Hi, my come look see you chop-chop." 
I came to find you at once.) 
: you see if she had been fitted for the 
traffic when you went on board her, Tankar?" 
-;iouse nodded vigorously. 
"Plentce ilon glatings and bolts, Capitan" 
(many iron - and bars), he said. "Eight, 

piecce gun have got, and plentee 
der and mixed shot, too, Capitan." 
I had learnt all I wanted, so I handed the ten 
-. paid for some fish for 
evening meal — some fine soles for 
If they would accept nothing for — and got 
into my gig again. As 1 passed under the stern 
r junk these curious tankar -folk were 
red joss candles on the little 
altar at the stern, exploding bunches of crackers, 
and vigorously beating a great gong in order to 
invoke the protection of the good spirits for me 
1 started on what they evidently con- 
red a desperate venturi 

after this interview my little vessel, with 

ied, glided silently out 

I ght, ■• . r, was even then 

showing ominous signs of a coming hurricane — 

■nen had confirmed the old pilot's 

' ' lich too was probably the 

: the anxiety displayed by the Chinese 

ard the steam-slaver to reach shelter. 

I • . on board her 

ption of a couple of half-caste 

Europeans who had been in 

sly had gone on to Macao in the 

steamer from Hong-Kong, in order to avoid 

plications when the slaver 

red Chinese waters. "\ < u hers," 

therefor r to Macao — a pretty tough 



crowd of apparently between a hundred and a 
hundred and fifty 1 >elta desperadoes. These 
particulars had been obtained by my interpreter 
from Sally's brother-in-law, who had spoken much 
more freely to him, of course, than his elder 
brother and partner had done to me. 

By this time the barometer was falling rapidly 
and I had little doubt that ere long the strange 
steamer would be driven to a typhoon shelter 
in the direction in which I was then heading. 
Soon wild squalls began to alternate with 
splashes of warm rain or misty drizzle. Native 
craft by scores and several large sailing-ships 
driven past me by the rising gale. The 
close and oppressive atmosphere, the moaning 
of the wind, and the starless darkness of the 
heavens, with the heavy sea that was rapidly 
rising, combined to make a prospect ugly 
enough to have sobered the most reckless. 
Not so with my wild Hakkas. however. There 
was a fight in prospect for them — and with the 
abominated slavers from whose operations their 
own native villages had been quite recent 
sufferers, too, so that it would take a storm 
indeed to daunt them. 

The odds in men should we meet the slaver 
were, so far as I could reckon, three to one. 
The stranger was a dozen times larger than we 
were, but the difference in the calibre of her 
guns we had yet to find out. Unfortunately, 
too, it was not only against human adversaries 
we had to contend, but with the forces of 
Nature. For there was no mistaking the signs 
of the coming typhoon. Indeed, with any 
other men on board I would never have risked 
the Viceroy's new gunboat on such a night. 
Little they were troubling their heads about it, 
though, as was evident from the jokes and 
impish antics going on for'ard while they 
cleared the decks ready for action and put the 
finishing touches to her fighting trim. The 
little steamer was rapidly stripped of all super- 
fluous fittings, whether the splinter - making 
material was wood or metal — if they could 
anyhow be dispensed with, overboard or below 
they went. By eight bells we were rapidly 
approaching the highland of Lantao, the little 
vessel doing a steady twelve knots. Leap- 
ing lightly above the heavy seas she ascended 
their heights and descended their depths with- 
out an effcrt. As we drew nearer I steadied 
myself against the iron railing of the bridge, and 
after jamming myself in one corner made per- 
sistent efforts to focus the land with my night- 
glass, but after painfully clearing my eyes of salt 
spray and driving rain I could only make out 
that the wide waste of waters was void ! Then 
an even heavier sea than its fellows ended its 
uncouth gambols in a sudden crash, tossing the 



THE STEAM-SLAVER. 



63 



little vessel's forefoot aside just as one of her 
crew might have brushed away a settling gnat ! 

" Confound it ! Take care, Quartermaster. 
How can I use my glass? Mind your helm, 
will you ? " I growled, half stunned — and soaked 
to the skin. 

•• More better, you go little more slow, 
Capitan," hazarded Mr. Chop-dollar. He had 



castle head, smothering bridge and deck as far 
as the funnel '. As I sprang to the engine-room 
tube the two look-outs were shaking themselves 
like water-spaniels, but almost before the hissing 
flood found its way over the side I had shouted 
to the chief engineer : — 

' ; Slow her down to ten knots, Mr. Ferguson." 
But still down to leeward — from whence I 




GO LITTLE MORE SLOW, CAMTAN,' HAZARDED MR. CHOP-COLLAR. 



to scream in my ear before I could catch what 
be said. 

'• I can't yet, Pilot. Look out now, Quarter 
master," I cried, as the little vessel in fighting 
through a heavy sea fell with a crash into the 
trough beyond. Then all five of us — com- 
mander, pilot, quartermaster, and look-outs — 
clung on with a grip of iron as the next great 
wave broke in a solid mass against the fore- 



expected the stranger to appear— there was no 
sign of any approaching vessel. 

" Keep her nose right at 'em, Quartermaster," 
I repeated, while aijain blinking and peering 
through the night-glass. The little vessel 
quivered from stem to stern under her punish- 
ment. Fortunately she was well and truly built 
and her engines and boilers had come from the 
le, like'the young engineer then in charge 






1111 WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 



tremendous beam 

n the ribs, and, tailing in 

ned to rush 

I it ! Slow to 

. 1 again shouted through 

. •• 1 maun think so too, 

\ response. Another 

Phi watch, a- little upset at the 

lany water-rats, found nooks 

and cranni ». I was bruised 



darkness the low hull of my little vessel was 
almost invisible even at close quarters. Sud- 
denly a leaden hued water-mountain formed 
barrier like in front of the gunboat. In quick 
response to the lessened strain on her throbbing 
engines she rose at it with bird-like lightness, 
and when perched on the summit a huge black 
hull was revealed, staggering and wallowing in 
front of her, scarce six hundred yards away ! 
( (Uild it be the slaver ? 

The look-out's warning flung down the wind, 




anr: ipletely drenched, and by 

of it r sullen by this 

■ned as if I v. _ain naught 

mental kicks by risking my little vessel. 

nd more signs 

Iread typhoon. The night 

ful squalls in yet more furious 

wildly from windward, and 

alt spray flew in blinding showers from the 

enormous waves. In the rain and 



NS KORWARD. 



quickly answered by rapid orders through bell- 
mouthed brazen trumpet, sounded no louder 
than a whisper on gun-deck ! The sharp taps 
of the drum — even its lengthened roll as it beat 
to quarters — were both lost in the roar of the 
furious elements that seemed to clutch the little 
gunboat in their grip ! Then, summoned by 
sight rather than hearing, two - score dark 
shadows glided from out the surrounding black- 
ness in response to that thrilling call, while eager, 



THE STEAM-SLAVER. 



65 



barefooted gun-crews, stripped to the waist, 
were clinging leech-like to sloping side and 
canted deck as they hauled, thrust, and swayed 
the long guns forward, till their gaping muzzles 
looked menacingly out at the approaching 
steamer! The order, again bellowed from brazen 
trumpet to men scarce a score of feet away, 
sounded but whisper-like in their ears ere it 
sped away down the roaring gale. But in quick 
response the sultry blackness and flying rain- 
mists were streaked and pierced by quivering 
flashes of ruddy flame. Yet to our warning 
guns and show of signal-lamps never an answer 
came from the stranger, and she passed astern, 
like a phantom of the night. Then, as calls, 
loud and shrill, sounded from bridge and fore- 
castle our little vessel slowed down, reversed, 
and then again went full speed ahead after the 
challenged steamer. We had scarce executed 
this manoeuvre ere, through the starless, pall-like 
sky horizonwards, out of mist wraiths and warm 
rain showers, a thin line of clear white light 
showed out, and then disappeared into the 
distant darkness of the waters in a burst of fire. 

" That was answer sufficient, Pilot," I said. 
"A shell from a rifled gun and heavier than 
ours ! It's the steam-slaver without a doubt ! 
You can take in those signal-lamps now, Bo'sun." 

Dense volumes of flame-flecked smoke now 
began to bank up to leeward as the bluff bows 
of the stranger were driven through the heavy 
seas. A glimpse of these, caught through my 
night-glass, though but of a second or two's 
duration, as the flash of her bow-guns lit up 
the for'ard end of the vessel, enabled me to 
make a pretty shrewd guess that our opponent- 
was an old composite American war-vessel — an 
unsightly, steam-collier-looking craft — sold by 
South Americans to French (Asiatic) subjects, 
and subsequently disposed of by them to the 
Chinese, after being offered in many other 
directions. 

These speculations were quickly cut short by 
a second shell screaming above our mastheads 
to burst far away in the blackness astern. Our 
funnel-flare as yet, seemingly, had passed un- 
noticed, and with lights carefully screened we 
crept up towards our huge enemy. I left the 
bridge for a few moments to encourage my gun- 
crews. 

"I cannot change your bad fuses, Gunner," 
I said. " That is the greedy German con- 
tractor's ' pidgin.' But for all that you must 
still keep the 3-inch steadily laid on those four 
bow side-lights. The crews of the four next 
guns will keep them double-shotted, and lay 
them on her water-line. The bar-shot for the 
smooth-bores if she closes, mind ! " 

Not till I had heard my interpreter repeat 

Vol. xii. — 9. 



every word (though I had been understood well 
enough) close to the gun captain's ears, and we 
both had had to shout at our utmost pitch- 
such was the hurly-burly of the elements — did I 
wearily climb back to my bridge. 

The little gunboat, having luckily the heels of 
her huge opponent, had by now crept nearly up 
to her. Her engines had been slowed down till 
she seemed to have become a mere unwieldy 
mass rolling heavily amidst the whitened surges, 
and I was hoping to run under her stern, when 
in a momentary lull in the fierce gusts the throb- 
bing of my little vessel's engines carried warning 
of our approach and proved an instant signal for 
the bluff, black bows toweing high above us to 
light up with vivid flashes, the missiles from her 
long guns tearing through the little gunboat's 
funnel and converting her trim pole-masts into 
ragged stumps, while two gaping holes were 
torn in the bridge canvas. 

The veteran pilot, who had just then been 
assisting the quartermaster, carefully polished 
the bright teak and brass wheel where it had 
been chipped by a flying metal fragment, ere he 
again glued his eyes to the lighted binnacle. 

There were ugly gaps in the guns' crews, too — 
though these were filled again ere the double- 
shotted " twelves " and rifled bow-chaser sent 
their answering broadside into the great black 
mass to leeward. But the shells from the guns of 
both vessels seemed blind and would not burst 
— roguery or climatic damp the reason, as may 
be ! So that those small, bright, circular side- 
lights — seeming like fiery eyes — still glittered 
balefully, as if in derisive defiance of my head- 
gunner's efforts, albeit he was no mean shot. 

Presently a seeming slackening in our 
antagonist's speed induced me to reduce the 
distance between us more still. Then, with 
suddenly applied speed, the huge mass ahead 
rushed down the raging seas with the evident 
intention of ramming us and crushing her 
puny but persistent antagonist beneath her 
heavy forefoot. But the attempt " to give 
us the stem " failed ! As the little gunboat 
swung to, well clear, the sharp crash of the 
bow-gun rose above the roar of the brass 
smooth-bores as solid shot and blind shell 
got home on our baulked and baffled 
enemy, now rolling heavily scarce half a mile 
astern. But, meanwhile, the gunner watched 
and waited in vain, staring into the blackness 
astern and frowning and muttering from his 
unsteady gun-platform like one possessed. For, 
shoot straight and true as he might, those small, 
round, fiery eyes I had indicated as his target 
seemed to mock him out of the blackness, 
ahead or astern, to windward or to leeward, yet 
ever unharmed. 



66 



II [E WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 




i III) • TWELVES AND K 

BROADSIDE INTO THE GREAT BLACK MASS 



IhT.KI) BOW-CHASER SENT THEIR ANSWERING 



i hotter, yet never a 
1 his patient work. Mean- 
time the tr.. i n board the slaver — 

rialist deserters or 

nd pirates, they fired fast and 

d in a brisk fire, and fortunate it was 

:iat naught but hot and blind shell 

from the 

I was just i on the small 

ht-hke I 1 the little gun- 

• : •• nted hanks to her superior speed 

»n — when suddenly 

there came an appal -h like the sound 

- in collision, or a sunken wreck staving 

>, and the little gunboat reeled and 

blindly forward. The tearing and 

rig of the bulwarks, mingled with the cries 

of desperately wounded men, followed. The 



enemy had left his mark on us with his eighteen- 
pounder projectiles. 

The havoc caused from stem to stern was 
told by the silent guns, and at such close 
quarters were we now that our plight could 
be seen by the light of the gun-flashes— 
as the fiercely exultant yells borne down on the 
wind from the enemy's deck then gave proof ! 

The stream of wounded once carried or sup- 
ported below, our guns were quickly manned 
again. Grievous was it to me to see the quiet 
forms lying so still on the torn and dismantled 
deck, and, moreover, there were beginning to be 
unmistakable signs that the last hour of the 
little gunboat had almost come ! 

Leaving the bridge I took my station for'ard, 
encouraging the fresh gun-crews till they had 
grown as recklessly indifferent, yet keen for 



THE STEAM-SLAVER 



67 



fighting on to the end, as their dead and 
wounded comrades had been. My thoughts 
meanwhile, however, were bitter enough, for an 
honest contractor's fuses would have averted 
this loss and destruction long since. I now 
noted, too, that a new rent gaped in the canvas 
around the bridge-rails facing me. This and 
the smashed iron railing were dripping and 
splashed with blood. Had I been there at the 
moment I was descending to the deck it would 
not have been only my unfortunate orderly's 
body that would have been carried overboard 
by that eighteen-pound round shot, as I now 
realized. Not only were the deck structures 



ran out the long brass twelves. Their blood- 
shot eyes and eager attitudes gave them a 
curious resemblance to human bloodhounds, 
mad to avenge comrade and clansman, friend 
or blood relation, and intent to fight to the very 
end. 

The Dragon Flag had been long ago nailed 
on to the short stump of the mizzen-mast, and 
there seemed every chance that the little gun- 
boat would go down with it there, for these men 
were of the wrong race to strike it were I to fall. 
Now and again a man whose ghastly wounds 
compelled me to order him off the deck sulkily 
crawled below. But none of the others stirred 




SUDDENLY THERE CAME AN APPALLING CRASH. 



wrecked, torn, or battered out of shape, but 
steam and smoke, mixed with jets of flame, were 
escaping from gaping rents in the funnel. 

But the head gunner, with the blood 
oozing through a bandage across his forehead 
and his left arm bound round with his " sash," 
still doggedly stuck to his post. 

"Well done, Ah Ling," I said. "By the 
law of averages you should get a live shell home 
soon ! " 

My gunner knew nothing of any such law, but, 
what was more to the point, was aware that 
there were unfortunately but very few more 
shells left— were they live or blind. 

My other Hakkas were by now roused to a 
pitch of frenzy as they sponged, re-loaded, and 



from their stations, nor would they have done 
so had we been sinking, I believe. 

The smart little vessel of that morning seemed 
now to be wrecked and distorted out of all 
recognition. I started then to twist the wheel 
about, but though she darted this way and that 
in quick response, she could not escape from the 
iron storm that followed her from the slaver's 
guns ! The funnel was split from uptake to cap, 
and four of the broadside guns lay dismounted 
amongst the fragments of their carriages, only 
secured by ropes to the side. The escaping 
steam from the gashed funnel hissed in the 
slimy crimson pools, as black smoke and red jets 
of flame swept across the deck. 

I gripped the wheel -spokes, with set teeth, 






T11K Wlhi; WORLD MAGAZINE. 



si in despair, was meditating a des 
ng, when shrill yells broke from the 
men at the .; gun. 

ng : ' " 1 shouted, in .t 
tnentary lull, expecting word ol some fresh 

only pointed with 



a jagged breach, from the edges of which smoke 
and flame belched in volumes. 

One shell, out of all those expended, had 
ved "live," and it mattered little now that 
our last shell was tired. 

The hows of the great hull to leeward were 







l FOLLOWED BV A DEAFEKING ROAR. 



ting 



uninju- 
black 1 m. 

an instant I caught his meaning. No 

of red light gl< 
In pla< e of th< ming i 

glittering in n, kery, there was now 



already one mass of rolling flame. The protect- 
ing wall of cotton bales, or coal or rice bags 
that "held" our solid shot had just failed to 
keep out our one live shell or prevent its 
explosion, and they were then burning fiercely. 
Silhouetted against the flames scores of half- 



THE STEAM-SLAVER. 



69 



naked human figures were sharply outlined, 
striving desperately to fight the fire. All the 
slaver's guns were silent. 

Then suddenly there came a blinding 
radiance, followed by a deafening roar as great 
clouds of greyish, yellow-tinted smoke, tinged 
and streaked with flame, and specked here and 
there with pieces of metal-work, spars, and 
smaller black objects, rose in mid-air. The great 
black funnel seemed for a space to stand 
upright in a fiery furnace of lurid flames, and 
then, with a final gasping, spluttering hiss, the 
vessel heeled over and buried herself under the 
seething cauldron of angry surges that closed 
around and over her. Her magazine had ex- 
ploded, and the steam slaver was no more ! 

My men seemed for a moment dazed and 
awe-struck at the spectacle ! The old pilot and 
the gunner were the first to recover their 
ordinary stolid composure. The one was 
anxious to discover if I had noticed that the lull 
in the fierce strife around us, which had set in 
towards the end of the fight— as though the 
elements themselves had been watching the 
struggle — seemed likely to cease. The other 
eagerly asked how I could know that the coolie- 
slavers had made the fore-compartment of the 
See-Chi her magazine. Both queries were un- 
heeded, for far more important matters demanded 
my prompt attention. The carpenter was sent 
to sound the well, and the unwounded men to 
the pumps or to clear the deck of the wreckage 
and fragments encumbering it ; whilst I, after 
consulting the barometer and the chart, took 
counsel with my chief engineer. For though I 
knew that we were within a dozen miles of a 
secure anchorage — yet whether we could manage 
to keep afloat till we reached it was by no means 
so clear to me. 

According to my barometer we were in for one 
of the worst typhoons ever experienced, and so 
in the event it proved. My only hope of pulling 
through lay in the fact that the islands of Lama 
and Lantao would break the force of sea and 
wind while we could keep under the shelter of 
their steep hills, and that just beyond them on 



the other side of Chut-Chu Point was a small 
bay, the far end of which was perfectly land- 
locked. Here small craft, drawing little water, 
could anchor during the worst typhoon in perfect 
safety. My problem, however, was how to get 
from the shelter of the islands to that of the hay, 
across a short but very dangerous bit of open 
sea ; whilst if, when running along under the 
cliffs of the islands, the engines were to break 
down even temporarily under the severe strain 
imposed on them we should be quickly ground 
into matchwood. On the other hand, if the 
pilot or quartermaster blundered in the smallest 
degree, we should just as inevitably founder. 

It was a case of being "betwixt the devil 
and the deep sea " with a vengeance. But the 
fearful wave-mountains and terrific storm-gusts 
as we drew away from shelter at once confirmed 
my barometer's warning. By this time all 
that the tremendous sea running permitted of 
had been done to get things somewhat ship- 
shape on deck and put our battered vessel into 
fair sea-going trim again. 

Not a rift was to be seen in the great black 
storm-clouds overhead, and as the wind pressure 
grew greater and the night more fearful my 
engineer became increasingly anxious, for the 
mountainous seas seemed to toss our little 
vessel from one wave-crest to another. Fortu- 
nately, by greatly reducing our supply of coal 
and expending nearly all our ammunition, we 
had increased our buoyancy a good deal. For 
had the hurricane sliced off only the summit of 
one of the huge wave-mountains rolling after us 
astern and flung it on board nothing could have 
saved us. Grand and awe-inspiring spectacle 
as that raging typhoon was, I hope never again 
to see the like of it. Yet there was little time 
to note it ere from out that tempestuous inferno 
our little vessel leaped lightly as a greyhound into 
her desired haven, and so to absolute security ! 
The mountainous seas receded reluctantly, 
seemingly enraged that the sorely - tried little 
gunboat, which was for so long their sport 
and so nearly their prey, had finally accom- 
plished her mission and escaped from their 
clutches. 






i/lmonq the South Sea Cannibals. 

\\\ Captain 11. ('ami \ Webster, F.Z.S. 
III. 

author has recently returned from a seven years' sojourn among the fierce man-eating and 
intin^ of the South Sea Islands. Captain Webster's narrative makes most thrilling 

and he illustrates it with a number of excellent photographs. 




WENT a little out o\ my way on 

pur the Admiralty 

Islands, which arc situated to the 

north-east o( New Guinea. They 

w< red in 1615 by the 

uten, but wry little, if anything, 

them until twenty-eight years ago, 

steamed through them 

on her famous cruis Long before I came in 

the low-lying coastal lands the natives 

111 the mountains, and 



The fust to reach us was crowded with men 
eager to approach the stranger who had dared 
to invade their shores, but in their anxiety to 
behold my ship they quite forgot the manipula- 
tion of their own, for they did not fetch up in 
time, and consequently the next moment saw 
them far astern, whereupon they all jumped 
into the sea and tried to reach us by 
swimming, shouting and yelling in their mad 
excitement. 

The next lot were more fortunate and hauled 
round some distance before we 
met, thus enabling me to throw 
them a line, and very soon after- 
wards we had one or two of 
their number on board. They 
were the wildest and most excit- 
able people I ever beheld in 
my life. They ran up the rig- 
ging, down into the saloon, and, 
in fact, all over the yacht, shout- 
ing to their friends in the canoe 
in tow and working themselves 
into such a terrible state of 
Venzy that I expected every 




koto. 

like 

r a 

' many came 

me, th': form- 

is flotilla 
. thoug'r 
looking craft. 

-mous dimensions, 
teadying ou 
each being capa 

juite forty people. 



A SNAP-SHOT IN A FRIENDLY VILLAGE. 

From a Photo. 



AMONG THE SOUTH SEA CANNIBALS. 



7i 



moment to see one or other of them fall down in 
a fit. When we arrived off the Island of St. 
Gabriel there were quite five hundred natives 
surrounding us, all shouting at the top of their 
voices and gesticulating wildly. From the 
quietude and peace of years the place was in a 
moment turned into a perfect state of pande- 
monium. 

Immediately after the anchor was down a 
canoe shot out from the beach and a moment 
afterwards the chief of the island, Kanau, craved 
permission to come on board. I gave the 
permit at once, allowing also about a dozen of 
his followers to accompany him. None of them 
wore any ornaments to speak of, only a few shell 
armlets and human bones. Sometimes, however, 
when they are in fighting array they wear a very 
curious piece of wood about two or three feet 
long and decorated with feathers, which they 
fasten on to their neck at the back. Their hair 
is allowed to grow to a length of about two feet, 
and, by binding it round with fibres, like a 
horse's tail at a fair, it stands straight out behind, 
imparting a really ludicrous appearance to their 
general get-up. Scuck here and there in it are 
many streaming feathers, and numerous-pronged 
bamboo - combs, also tipped with brightly- 
coloured feathers, are thrust through at the sides 
and front. I must not forget to mention that 
they carry an obsidian (volcanic glass) dagger in 
this same hiding-place, the handle of the weapon 
being decorated to resemble a hair-comb. 

The " Cruise of the Challenger " stated that 
the natives of this place wore a shell known as 
the Bulla Ovum as their only article of dress, 
but although when I visited them this shell was 
invariably carried in the indispensable basket 
over their left arm, and which also contained 
their betel-nut, pepper, and lime-pot, they had 
substituted a larger dress of beaten out bark, 
which they wound round their loins. 

These natives are born traders, and were very 
eager to barter their beautifully-carved obsidian 
spears, arm-rings, and bowls, which they brought 
in great varieties, for red cloth, files, and knives. 
They would haggle obstinately over a small 
piece of tortoiseshell or an arm-ring, always 
wanting a little more in exchange, until at last 
I would lose all patience and refuse to trade 
at all. 

On one occasion a native brought a large 
food-bowl in the shape of a pig, carved out of a 
solid block of wood, two feet in length. He 
asked for it an axe, which he saw one of my 
men using, and, on being indignantly refused, 
requested a fish-hook. This I gave him at 
once, whereupon he wanted a long piece of 
copper-wire attached to it which he had ob- 
served lying on the deck. When I gave him 



this also he was not satisfied, claiming a longer 
piece, and all the time holding out his bowl 
by the legs and setting forth its magnificence. 
Again I fastened another piece of wire 
to the end, when he coaxingly made me 
understand that he required me to " Fix on 
another fish-hook at the other end." Losing my 
patience I seized the lot and, cramming it into 
my trading-box, slammed down the lid and 
drove the discontented savage over the side. 
Very shortly afterwards he returned and gave me 
the bowl for a very much smaller fish-hook 
and without any wire at all. I was at first 
at a loss to understand his sudden change 
of tactics, but immediately afterwards dis- 
covered the reason just in time to catch him 
as he was disappearing into his canoe. I 
found that one of the legs of the bowl had 
broken off, which defect he had kept carefully 
hidden by pretending to hold it by the 
appendage which was not there. Seizing him, 
I at once made him sit down on the deck and 
repair it. This took him the whole afternoon, 
but it taught me a lesson as to how much can 
be done without tools — a piece of obsidian and 
a shell being the only implements he possessed. 
Breaking off a piece of the pole he used for 
punting his canoe over the reefs, he besmeared 
the end with charcoal and pressed it against 
the broken joint ; by this means he was able to 
see what parts required paring off. This process 
he repeated several times until the two pieces 
exactly fitted one another. Then, rounding off 
the new leg to the required length, he inserted 
some small pegs of wood in the end to be 
joined and fitted it on in such a manner that 
when the whole was painted over with dampened 
charcoal it was impossible to find the joint. 
He demanded an axe, but received a few beads 
for his trouble. 

During the few days I remained here 
Kanau and his following came off every day 
at sunrise. They lay about the deck, causing 
everything they touched or sat upon to become 
black and filthy, and stayed until they were 
literally driven into their canoes at night. They 
were all very fat and excessively lazy, chewing 
betel-nut without ceasing, save when they 
desired to eat the food they had brought me as 
a present in the morning. 

Only once during my whole visit was I per- 
mitted to see one of their women. She was 
brought on board one morning, and was said 
to be the wife of the chief. She was most 
hideously repulsive-looking, and her hair was 
matted in a conglomerated mass with some 
sticky black substance. She was covered with 
round indentations which had been burned into 
her flesh in rows and designs, and round her 



;- 



1 HI w [DE WORLD M.\i,.\/.INE. 







1 HI- All HOR S YACHT 

\Photo. 



and body there had been woven Ljrass 

■Is, tourniquettcd so tightly that the flesh 

had prow n completely over them and must have 

■:ied the poor creature at all times the 

:1V. 

I next visited Admiralty Island, which is the 

■f the group. ling between two 

Her islands at it> extreme south we passed 

le a long barrier reef, extending for many 

mil- and half a mile farther on 

: under the lee of a small island, 

red and populated. Mere 1 

main until the following morning, 

hut I as immediately surrounded by 1 

quantities of natives who were 

a different disposition to my 

frier ibriel, all of them shouting 

ticulating in a most un- 
tile manner, I d it advis- 
able to get under in. 

■iled on to the 

;hout any invitation and contrary to my 

ord'- *rith them great pieces of 

human meat, and expressing their 

idence in every way I must 

[fell ifortably situated. 

n thirty and forty large war 

vhich was nearly as long 

h carrying i rowds 

-en all an .-th with obsidian 

and daggers, surrounding a small cruising 

'een hands all told, and thousands 

of miles from any civilization. We were with- 



These 
observed 



out steam power, and 
there was very little wind. 
The savages ran wild all 
over the ship, all talking 
and screaming at once, 
and for a time things 
looked ugly. But it came 
to nothing, and it was 
with an intense feeling of 
relief that I felt the yacht 
moving ever so slowly 
through the water, and 
saw the canoes dropping 
one by one astern. 

My journey across to 
New Guinea was unevent- 
ful. On our arrival at the 
head-quarters of the Ger- 
man settlement we were 
at once besieged with 
natives, who came out in 
small dug-out canoes to 
offer us food in the shape 
of yams, taros, and bana- 
nas, which we were very 
glad to get. 
people were true Papuans, and I 
here, as in the British and Dutch 



from a) 




GROUP OF NEW GUINEA 

NATIVES. [P/lOtO 



AMONG THE SOUTH SEA CANNIBALS 




portions of the island, the strong 
Hehraic features very predominant. 

The men in a great many instances were 
exceptionally finely built, their only clothing 
being a piece of stringy fibre wound round the 
loins. The tightness with which they tie these 
fibres round their bodies must occasion them 
as much pain as tight-lacing does to Western 
ladies ! A typical group of New Guinea savages 
is shown at the bottom of the preceding page. 

The coast village seen in the above photo, is 
built at the mouth of a river, and is considered, 
for New Guinea, a very large one. The houses 
are thatched with the leaf of the sago palm, 
and the entrance is reached up the trunk of a 
tree, notched for steps. This leans against the 
opening, which is just large enough to allow the 
owner to crawl in and out. 

These houses are all more or less carved, and 
in a great many instances this form of decora- 
tion is exceedingly well done. As a rule the 
largest house of the village is the visitors' and 
young men's house, which generally stands a ' 
little apart from the rest, and is covered with 
quaint designs carved by its male occupants. 

The women are usually of smaller stature 
than the men and, if possible, more hideous in 
appearance ; although I have occasionally seen 
young girls with very passable features. Their 
clothing consists of a small bunch of grass, 
strung on a fibre and tied round the waist. 

Vol. xii.— 10. 




TYPES OF NEW GUINEA 
CANNIIiAI.S. 

From a Photo. 






llli; WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 



two 
the 



isage of the 
the nai II smoke a kind of 

try, which they 

smoke, and 

■ '. mere infants 

their native pipes ! 1 have 

pig and her child 

rrying one under either 

rare more tor the welfare 

than the latter, presumably in 

iter market value. 

the interior took about 

implish, and apart from 

si ■ - filled with very many 

we passed through 
our intrusion at the spear's point, 
n one :i, when the natives 

1 my small party, we were oblij 
rs Ives \ igorously. One man 
found to have been killed by a bullet 
ad penetrated his arm at the 
elbow, running up and across his 
nd terminating at the other 
arm, showing that he had been in 
the act of drawing his bowstring 
when he was struck down. 

The farther I marched 

inland the fewer natl\ 

until at last wi 

ign of habitation be 

hind. The last pe< >ple we 

met with lived about thirty 

mib a the coast, 

and they seemed a 

much lower type and 

ntirely a differ- 

from all 

| r< 

had come across. Their 

houses were low and 

badly built, consisting of but a few split bamboos 

las! 'her and thatched with banana leaves. 

lingly frightened of me, and it 

':> the gi difficulty that I persuaded 

* rne ta raphs. 

. at a place where the river 

had been following divided, one branch 

fun a short distance, where 

from the mountain, and the 

other to the south-west, where after a mile or so 

1 >r> a hort waterfalls coming 

me mountain. This was the source 

tne After cutting our way 

for a whole day we arrived at 

aountain. 'This was the 

inland I n and was after- 

s named after the discoverer. 

This place was about fifty geographical miles 



from the coast. The forest was always so thick 
that with six natives cutting a way ahead three 
miles was considered a good day's march. One 
of the principal objects of this journey to the 
interior was now accomplished. I had come to 
ascertain the exact position of the Bismarck 
Mountains, and as a result was able to remove 
the entire range from the map. for I found it to 
be a figment of the imagination. Whoeverposed 
as its discoverer was without doubt gazing upon 
the Albeit \ i< tor Range in British New Guinea. 
With the exception of a few tribes, who seriously 
resented my intrusion, and who, I am afraid, 




'i "I HE I .■.HI HIM sk,: 



I HI-: INTERIOR REACHED BY CAPTAIN WKBSTEK. 



[P/ioto. 



paid a heavy penalty for the attacks they 
made upon us, I was struck by the general 
shyness of most of the inhabitants inland, which 
in many instances prevented their supplying us 
with native foodstuff, which was much needed 
for my carriers. Even their greed for red and 
yellow ochre — the articles of barter they most 
prize — would scarcely induce them to trade. 
They greatly feared my camera, either as a fetish 
or a dangerous instrument of destruction, and 
required much coaxing before they would come 
near enough to be photographed. 

On my arrival off the coast of Dutch New 
Guinea I sailed up the Straits of Aidoema and 
saw many natives shoot across our bows some 
distance ahead in small canoes, but they were 
too frightened to show themselves within speak- 
ing distance. About the centre of the Straits I 



AMONG THE SOUTH SEA CANNIBALS. 



75 



perceived a habitation on shore, surrounded by 
clumps of cocoanut-trees, and so, anchoring, I 
quickly went ashore. The chief of the village, 
strangely enough, was a woman, and, although 
excessively nervous, she welcomed me to her 
cannibal home. 

This lady possessed a great number of pearls, 
which I made out were collected for the 
Macassar traders who periodically visit these 
parts, giving the natives in exchange cloth and 
beads. I purchased what I could from her for 
a few needles and thread, a reel of cotton, and a 
sarong. She told me, in a kind of broken 
Malay, which she had learnt from intercourse 
with the traders, that many years ago the 
" Orang Ingris " (Englishmen) had lived in the 
bay in front of our anchorage. Indeed, it is 
quite possible that they may have done so, for 
it was in 1620 that the Dutch drove the English 
from Bantam, when they emigrated to Amboyna, 
in the Celebes, where a few years later they were 
the victims of a plot, invented by a Dutchman 
for their destruction, and were again routed, a 
few of them escaping to the mainland of New 
Guinea. This was the Massacre of Amboyna, 
1 6th February, 1623. What became of these 
few miserable outcasts is uncertain, but in all 
probability those who survived the terrible 
ravages of the malarial climate were killed and 
eaten by the savages. 

How long they remained here alive I cannot 
tell, but they must have known only too well 
that they were condemned to a living tomb in 
this wild, desolate spot, where the face of the 
white man is never seen, and where no other 
sound is heard save the " Wok-wok " of the 
paradise bird, the screech of the cockatoo, or 
the weird and distressing boom of the " tom- 
tom " to remind them of the cheering 
fact that a cannibal feast is taking place hard 
by, and that it may be their turn next. I saw the 
remains of stonework, where these poor exiles 
had built a small landing-stage, and ruins of 
ancient stone houses, evidences of their im- 
prisonment, now nothing but crumbling ruins 
entirely covered with the rank undergrowth. 

After a very short stay in Triton and 
Treachery Bays I made for Etna Bay, where 
the Charles Louis range of mountains runs 
down almost to the water's edge and where I 
hoped to obtain many ornithological prizes. 

I arrived at the head of this bay, some 
twenty miles inside the mainland, after numerous 
difficulties in the way of adverse winds and 
currents, looking in vain for people, and at last, 
thinking I had found an uninhabited place, 
anchored in a little bay under the very shadow 
of the mountain slope. For some days succeed- 
ing my arrival I went uninterrupted far into the 



forest collecting many valuable species quite 
new to science. One evening, however, I saw a 
canoe creeping along on the northern shore of 
the bay containing twelve natives. They 
hailed us from a long distance and spoke 
a dialect of Ceramese partially understood 
by one of my hunters. After much persuasion 
I got them to come aboard, on my promising 
not to kill them. They ate most ravenously 
the enormous bowls of rice I had placed before 
them, and were in a terribly emaciated condition. 

The next morning at daybreak a great many 
more canoes came down the bay all filled with 
people. A number of the natives came on 
board and fought like wild beasts over the rice 
I gave them to eat, some of them absolutely 
standing in the bowls containing it and snarling 
like so many animals at the weaker ones, who 
endeavoured in vain to get their share. Their 
teeth were filed to points like a dog's — always a 
bad sign — and they were particularly anxious 
that I should purchase one or two girls they 
had in the canoes, and when I asked them what 
I should do with them intimated that I should 
fatten them for food. 

All went well for a few days until one morn- 
ing I sent my men ashore as usual to hunt in 
the forest. An hour afterwards one of them 
suddenly rushed down the beach shouting tome 
to fire the machine-gun I had mounted on deck, 
as Lennel (one of my hunters) had been killed ! 

He managed to swim out to the yacht under 
a heavy fire of spears and arrows from the 
natives. Sad to relate, however, they killed and 
ate my boatswain, Johnston, and three of my men, 
and captured five rifles and a whale-boat. Later 
on, when the tide rose, all their canoes, which 
lined the beach, began to float off, and every 
time they attempted to run from the thick cover 
down to the water's edge to rescue them I 
brought the quick-firer into action, raking the 
line, and keeping them back. By this means we 
were enabled to scuttle nearly a hundred canoes. 

These natives were the boldest and most 
ferocious I have encountered, and numbered 
nearly five hundred. For five succeeding 
days, there being no wind, we Could not get 
away, and during that time they made six 
desperate attempts to capture the yacht, but 
thanks to my small but plucky crew their efforts 
were unsuccessful. 

At last the breeze came, and very soon after- 
wards we caught the steady wind of the south- 
west monsoon. It was with a sense of exquisite 
relief that I was now able for the first time for 
many days and nights to go below and sleep in 
safety, but the strain and anxiety of that week's 
experience with these cannibals will never be 
forgotten if I live to be a hundred. 



Three Girls in the Wilderness. 

r.\ Mrs. Eleanor Griffin McNett. 

The experiences of three young schoolmistresses, sent out to Fort Defiance, Arizona, to teach the 

They found themselves literally at the jumping-off place of civilization— fifty miles 

from -tamp and two hundred from a tin of baking-powder ! Finally ugly rumours con- 

ng of the Indians began to float about, and after a most anxious period of suspense 

the three teachers were sent back East under a military escort. 




HERE was wild commotion on our 

native heath one chilly, winter eve. 

ree "female tenderfeet " Mary, 

Rachel, and Priscilla — under convoy 

I ii ^g( ni j Surgeon elect, were 

into the "Wild and Woolly 

loolma'ams we were, waving 

our commissions to the wily savage, sent out 

- im 

gs 

dy India n 

ting- 

•id 
M 
1 i 
nation, the 

Indian 

1 1 fi u Ari 

Territory, 

a m< k in 

wilderm 

i m i r 

small boys lined 

the plat- 

S 
they thought, we 
would I 
nobbing with 

rattle- 
snakes, and 
- 

>ter anxious- 
■ 

the 
■ ore 
' »ur 

I our necks and wept, and 
a shining revolver upon me— 

last present sobered us considerably; 

enly assumed serious proportions. 

for fun and for money, but we 




had failed to reckon with the stern realities of 
the business. 

Such an array of baggage ! Party clothes and 
potatoes, croquet sets and dictionaries. We 
were going to a place where necessities were 
luxuries, and so these things were to thread 
deep < anyons, and to ford swift torrents, beyond 
the frontier. Only two months out of nine of 

absence were 
we to be in 
touch with those 
trunks again. 

A sombre 
morning dawned 
upon our arrival 
in Chicago. We 
quickly clam- 
bered into a car 
bound across 
the Mississippi 
to Kansas City, 
leaving vivid 
memories of vast 
quantities of lug- 
gage with the 



i 



ticket-agent. 

Crossing the 
swollen Missouri 
the following 
day, we pushed 
on where corn is 
king. In inter- 
minable parallels 
the rustling rows 
stretched away 
to meet the sky. 
Then past an 
occasional sod- 
house, the pion- 
eer's outpost, 
on to the 
cattle range. We whistled for a "round-up" in 
the Arkansas valley, where thousands of bellow- 
ing beeves were relentlessly urged on by creatures 
in spurs and sombreros — the cowboys of our 
dreams ! 

At every station we saw piles of whitened 



THREE GIRLS IN THE WILDERNESS. 



11 



bones awaiting shipment East. This had been 
the. stamping-ground of the buffalo, but he was 
gone. 

With lengthening twilight came the "Great 
American Desert " of our childhood. The sage- 
brush lent a mournful hue to the arrested waves 
of the great inland sea. All about us were vast 
areas of silence and mystery. Not so much the 
uncivilized, but the unknown, the unknowable. 

At La Junta, Colorado, the unusual spectacle 
of three ladies in the place led to our being 
taken for a theatrical troupe. 

As the day waned the Spanish Peaks rose 
upon the horizon clear and distinct in the 
rarefied air, pinnacle after pinnacle, a roseate 
vision. With another engine tacked on, we 
climbed the Raton Pass, sleeping peacefully at 
night on the car cushions laid lengthwise on 
the floor. 

Before dawn we bundled out at Los Vegas— 
a hustling, cowboy town. How quaint the 
one-story adobe houses looked ! How foreign 
the Mexican sehoras, heads draped in shawl or 
black mantilla, going to early Sunday Mass ! 
Monte tables were in full blast. A gallows in 
the public square showed that three horse- 
thieves had recently received their deserts from 
the Vigilantes. Everywhere in evidence was the 
ubiquitous tin-can. 

That night the stars shone bravely through 
the chinks of our bedroom wall. We had one 
bed — a tight fit for three. Knowing that 
ignorance is bliss we carefully lay down on the 
outside of it, wrapped up in our shawls, and 
talked of the proposed stage-ride of the morrow 
across the snowy range of the Rockies to 
Santa Fe. 

A little after midnight Prisci'.la reached across 
Mary and pulled my sleeve. " Rachel, Rachel, 
h-u-s-h, listen ! " 

" They've got money," growled a hoarse, 
deep voice, in a stage whisper. The partition 
between us and the next room was like paper. 
Still as mice, we heard our financial status 
discussed minutely, punctuated with vigorous 
language. 

"They'd better lookout," squeaked a falsetto. 
We could distinguish no more. 

Tip-toeing to the surgeon's door, we held with 
him a council of war and decided on a later 
start. We would risk nothing, for hold-ups 
were not infrequent, even on the main highway 
to the capital. 

But we slipped through safely, merely spending 
a very bad quarter of an hour on a narrow 
mountain-shelf. In front was a jibbing team, 
on one side a rocky cliff, on the other a 
stupendous chasm -- behind, those rumbling, 
protesting, battered trunks. 



We were following the old Kit Carson trail to 
Santa Fe. Sampling alkali pool and soda-spring 
impartially, politely offered "tangle-foot " whisky 
by a party of surveyors, we arrived at the city 
of the Holy Faith. 

How full of interest the novel sights and 
sounds in the courtyard of the hotel ! Prairie- 
schooners, muleteers, cowboys, Indians with 
gay blankets gave a vivid dash of colour to 
the picture framed in dull adobe grey. 

From here we made an early start on an open 
buck-board waggon for Fort Wingate, a seven 
company post, the bulwark of the New Mexican 
frontier. Up hill, down dale, we went— a one- 
hundred-and-eighty-mile ride — crossing deserts 
where for sixty miles no water was available. 

Fording the shallow Rio Grande we were all 
night climbing the slopes of Mount Taylor, 
thirteen thousand feet high. All the next day 
we were in sight of giant, castellated, red buttes, 
corroded by wind and weather into all kinds of 
fantastic shapes ; so we worked slowly on to the 
frontier. 

We three girls sat in the back seat, wedged 
like pigeons in a pie. Behind us, tightly 
strapped, were piles of mail-bags, for were we 
not the fast " Star Route Outfit," carrying the 
United States mail to Prescott ? We were in 
light marching order, every one of our trunks 
left behind for an indefinite period in Santa Fe. 

Five drivers covered the distance. With a 
blood-curdling war-whoop the last drew up with 
a flourish in front of the sutler's store at Fort 
Wingate. How homelike the twinkling lights 
of the post looked ! How delightful was the 
cordial hospitality of the officers of the 15th 
U.S. Infantry and 9th U.S. Cavalry ! How 
inspiring the bugle sounding reveille ! 

The next morning Captain Bennett, Com- 
mandant of the post, presented Manuelita, 
hereditary chief of the Navajos, to us. He was 
a Hercules, over six feet in height, finely pro- 
portioned, resplendent in silk velvet breeches, 
adorned with rows of silver buttons hammered 
from Mexican dollars, and a valuable necklace 
composed of beads, gold and silver coins, and 
medals given bv the U.S. Government to his 
forefathers. 

We were now informed of the war-cloud 
which was lowering on the horizon. Tribal 
cousins of the fierce Apaches, the Navajo 
Indians, second only to the Sioux in ferocity 
and numbers, were balancing Agency blankets 
against the war-path. 

For the present blankets were up and all was 
well. We hurried into the Agency ambulance, 
eager for the last fifty-mile stage of our journey 
— the climb into the fastnesses of this powerful 
tribe, loyal as the Swiss to their mountain home 






Till WIDL world mai;a/ini:. 




• CIST, AGENCY BLANKETS Al'.AINSl THE WAK-I'ATM 



W 3 i where potatoes could not 

mty crop of grain was reaped 

re an empty parking box was a 

ttraordinary was the ordi- 

nd the unexpected always happened. 

•nfidently informed us that we 

live on the picture of an onion for a 

which, in a way, was only too 

IS, furthermore, that a tourist 

in Yuma sat down at a table where a waiter 

• him a plate of meat. " What is it ? " 

"Teal, sir," replied the 

il i it wings and could it fly '' 

The astonished waiter 

"Then take it away," came the 

gs and could fly, and 

from this place, I don't want any 

>ur arrival ar Agency — we were an 

I and mongrel curs 

. from every direction, 

all • the three venturesome girls 

I ' ich and to 

our future home with 

aw an abandoned military 

-ilt in the form of a hollow square. 

buildings, one story in height, 

was but one frame 

building— the store-house from which supplies 

given to the Navajo trding to the 

f I Issue 1 >ay." 

Colonel Sumner, of the ist Dragoons, built 



this outpost in 1851 — an 
answer from their very 
midst to the tribe who 
had dared him to bring 
his soldiers hither. That 
first night and for many 
a night after we slept 
three in a bed, until the 
old drug-store could be 
cleaned up for our occu- 
pation. The one who 
slept outside had to keep 
up the fire in the little 
" dobe " fireplace, the 
middle one was nearly 
smothered, and the in- 
side one had to fight for 
the clothes. 

The surgeon's practice 
was light. Never trust 
the Indian with a medi- 
cine, for he will swallow 
the contents of the bottle 
all at once. In the in- 
terval of the doctor's 
official duties he made a 
floor for us from the 
afore-mentioned valuable boxes. His bedstead 
he swung like a hammock, secure from the 
mice, who ran fearlessly everywhere, even in 
the daytime. We caught eleven at one 
successful swoop in a wash-boiler ! 

We were fifty miles from a postage - stam p ; 
occasionally two hundred from a tin of baking- 
powder. We were literally at the jumping-off 
place of civilization. For the road leading to 
the plaza of the Agency stopped there — dead. 
There was nothing but canyon, mesa — mesa, 
canyon, westward to the Mormon settlements. 
It was such a strange land, too. As a Govern- 
ment inspector said — "the counterpart of the 
Syrian desert." 

One afternoon a medicine man visited our 
room. We examined with curiosity the bag of 
"big medicine" he wore suspended from a 
string around his neck. 

Very early next morning we were awakened 
by shots upon the mesa. His incantations had 
failed to cure a patient, who had died. As the 
medicine man could not pay compensation he 
had been shot by the infuriated relatives. He 
was wrapped in his best blanket for his trip to 
the " happy hunting grounds," and laid in a 
rocky sepulchre like the patriarchs of old. 

It was a silent land, this. There was no 
quiver of leaves, no blessed sound of running 
water. The Bonita, a mere thread in the dry 
season, crept sullenly along, to lose itself in the 
muddy arroyos of the plain. 






THREE GIRLS IN THE WILDERNESS. 



79 



Out yonder in the desert, where the " dust 
devils " flew in their mad dance, death lurked 
in myriad shapes — quick, slow, lingering, sure 
— whether by thirst, starvation, or the short, 
swift madness born of the desert. None better 
than the frontier women know the safety of the 
home corral. 

There were no outside distractions. Our 
mail came fortnightly by pony express. As one 
of our frontiersmen tersely remarked : " Good 
spot for a literary cuss." 

The housekeeping was as remarkable as 
everything else in this remarkable place. The 
cook of our large mess had to rise at 4 a.m. 
With a tiny 
stove food was 
cooked in re- 
lays. Table- 
cloths, up to 
the time of our 
advent, had 
been an un- 
known quantity. 
We solved the 
problem by 
using red flan- 
nel, cheery and 
enduring. Need- 
less to say, our 
menu was very 
simple now that 
we were six 
hundred miles 
beyond the 
frontier. Three 
very much sur- 
prised young 
women contem- 
plated bacon, 
molasses, and 
soggy biscuit for 
breakfast ; mo- 
lasses, biscuit, 
and bacon for 
dinner ; biscuit, 
bacon, and 
molasses for supper. We had a joyful surprise 
— beans and rice for Sunday dinner ! Goat's 
milk was offered us in a dirty brass kettle. Our 
mutton came from wethers who were living on 
the roots of the grass of two years before, our 
beef from animated mummies, "too thin to cast 
a shadow." Hens, too, were sickly at that 
altitude, nine thousand feet above sea-level. 
There were no eggs, no butter, no cow's milk. 
There was one lamp — in the Agent's office. We 
girls used tallow candles — nasty abominations, 
sputtering and guttering, only serving to make 
darkness visible. 




The hogshead of nickel-plated casters we had 
brought with us, that Governmental conundrum, 
furnished an inspiration. We stuck the candles 
in the cruets, and used the casters as reflectors, 
making a delightful illumination. We had no 
soap. Our washerman dug the roots of the 
amole — Mexican soap-weed — for use in our 
laundry. We had no ironing-day, because there 
were no irons. An attempt at sweeping revealed 
the fact that the Agency possessed no dust-pan, 
but the handy surgeon improvised a substitute 
from a piece of sheet-iron. 

We reached the Agency during Christmas 
week, and not until the end of March did we 

see those pre- 
cious trunks of 
ours. Our first 
school-work was 
to adjust three 
Singer sewing- 
machines, which 
we found in 
good order. 
Chindi, a half- 
breed, took the 
wildest interest 
in the " Pesh- 
nal-cott " — iron 
that sews— and 
proved an ex- 
cellent help. 
Then began the 
work of plan- 
ning mattresses, 
sheets, and 
skirts, and the 
general para- 
phernalia of a 
boarding-school 
for thirty. A 
long row of 



IBM 



FORT DEFIANCE, ARIZONA — THE JUM 
From a Photo. 



I'ING-OFF PLACE OF CIVILIZATION. 

by Heisters. 



adobe buildings 
was converted 
into sleeping 
and dining- 
rooms, laundry 
and kitchen. Another row had already been 
fitted with school -desks, and required but 
few alterations. Uncle Sam dealt generously 
with his little Indians. Every schoolboy received 
a new suit, cap, and shoes, every schoolgirl 
an outfit made by our hands from calico and 
red flannel. 

As is perhaps inseparable from Governmental 
institutions, there was a great deal of red tape. 
The teacher in charge for a month had to make 
requisitions - upon the Agent for weekly supplies, 
and give them out herself— particularly sugar- 
or else there was sure to be a deficit. Each 






Illl WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 






had to be made out in 

\\ it cooks : one belong 

addicted t" 

I rnment ston s, 

low dirt to make up 

dicate in favour of 

• ml wln> liked ,^ood 

j honest, and satisfied the 

nl bitter need have 





■— ; ■ ■■;■ I 11 Ml SHIVERING WAIF. 

tiake the best of any- 

M< rally boiled with 

ol tortillas (Mexican 

in 9 a.m. until i 1.30, 

nd from 1 p.m. to 2.30, 

one • '. had thr grades of 

mid read and 

tion table. Oral 

. • '• pro- 

I ' ■ main point 

" ■ : ol attractive ; this we 

with picture-books and 

proud of the fact that never 
end for the interpreter. 

n little pet. Miss Attizzeh, 



deserves attention. She came to us one raw 
cold February day -a poor little shivering waif. 
She was a slave child, a mere Pi Ute scrap of 
humanity, pinched and thin, her little hands and 
feel cracked with the cold. A hot bath, a 
scarlet flannel suit, and stylishly-arranged hair 
did wonders. We adopted her on the spot. 

For about a week neither urging nor coaxing 
could induce her to say a word. As her shyness 
wore away, however, we found she had the 
sweetest little, soft, low voice in 
the world. It was music to heat- 
her trip over our strange English 
words. 

She shared a corner of our room, 
and when the doctor made her a 
bed — a real bed— and she was pro- 
moted from her blanket by the fire- 
side, her delight knew no bounds. 
All that day her playmates were 
marched in to behold the miracle. 
No prouder or happier child ever 
went to bed at first fall of twilight. 
No one could rake the embers out 
of the fire-place more deftly than 
she in the early dawning. No one 
was swifter of foot to do little 
errands. Like many white children, 
however, prosperity proved too 
much for her. If we refused any- 
thing upon which she had set her 
heart, she would throw herself flat 
on the floor and set up a wail loud 
enough to appal the stoutest. In- 
difference generally proved a speedy 
cure; neglect she could not endure. 
We made her a go-to-meeting suit 
with gay red trimmings and silver 
buttons and a string of beads. No 
peacock ever displayed its plumage 
with more pride. She proved 
bright, quick, intelligent, and it is 
a credit to our Government that these neglected 
children are being trained mentally, morally, 
and physically. 

As irrigation increases, these waste places will 
blossom like the rose, the nomad Navajo will 
settle down under his own roof, and the bad 
old ways give place in the next generation to a 
new era of peace and prosperity. 

I )uring all these months, though everything 
was outwardly peaceful, the Agency was a caul- 
dron of seething rumours. 

Southward the Apache chief Victoria's 
successful forays were marked by burning 
ranches, slaughtered husbands and fathers, 
and wives and children borne away to tortures 
inconceivable. And these fiends incarnate 
were not very far south of us. 



THREE GIRLS IN THE WILDERNESS. 



8t 



" It is an off year for Indians," said Captain 
Bennett ; and there were only sixteen men to 
do post duty at Fort Wingate ! 

Mariana, the powerful Navajo war -chief— 
a savage gentleman — was our faithful friend. 
Was Manuelita ? It was uncertain. Old 
frontiersmen, reliable judges of Indian character, 
shook their heads. " Never saw the Indians 
more saucy and insolent," they said. 

Apaches, Utes, Pi Utes, were all urging our 
tribe to go on the war-path, and the young 
bucks were eager for the fray. Civil in Decem- 
ber, they had be- 
come rude and ~ 
disrespectful in 
April. Only too 

well they knew -' r - 

the nearest avail- 
able force was at §.-.. 
Fort Lewis, Color- 
ado. Three of the 
male employes re- 
signed, unable to 
stand the strain. 
T he working 
Indians in pure 
w a n t o n n e s s 
destroyed their 
wheel-barrows and 
other tools. The 
Agency store- 
house, too, was 
broken into, and 
extra articles for 
the boarding- 
school taken from 
a room directly 
opposite the 
Agent's office. All 
these things were 
signs of the com- 
ing storm. 

An old frontiers- 
man with a squaw 
wife begged us 

to leave while yet there was time, 
coming is the only chance for my 
education," he said, " but go ! go ! " 

One day an Indian jumped through the 
kitchen-window and told the affrighted cook 
that in a few days they were coming to carry us 
away ! 

Another day as we were carrying on our usual 
iessons we noticed an unusual number of 
strangers among our daily visitors. From a 
vantage point I saw an Indian point to Priscilla 
and deliberately draw his finger across his 
throat from ear to ear. 

That evening Manuelita's sister, a woman of 

Vol. xii. — 11. 



AX INDIAN Jl.MI'F.D THROUl 



" Your 

boys' 



powerful influence in a tribe where women hold 
their own property and are quite advanced in 
women's rights, came stealthily to our rooms. 
She had much to gain by our remaining. 

" Heza-a-clin " the good doctor — had skil- 
fully alleviated the intense suffering of her poor 
little boy afflicted with mortal disease. 

No sister could have shown more anxiety 
for us. 

" You three white women take three hors> 
she said. "Co to Shush - be - tow " (Fort 
Wingate). "Go now — go quick!" 

And still we 
hesitated, but 
when, next morn- 
ing on the way to 
school, Attizzeh, 
chattering with 
her mates, cried, 
" Kille, kille all 
the white men '. " 
we went through 
the session in a 
dream, carefully 
observing our 
usual routine lest 
the Indians should 
notice any pertur- 
bation. Closing at 
1 1 a.m. instead of 
1 1.30, we hastily 
threw a few neces- 
sities into gunny- 
sacks and got 
ready for flight. 

The doctor 
brought up an old 
rattle-trap vehicle 
and a broken- 
down horse. We 
took our old 
places on the 
back seat, the 
Agent's son sitting 
with the driver in 
front. All carried revolvers and had long since 
practised shooting at a mark. 

The Plaza seemed unusually deserted— of 
itself a significant sign. Poor Attizzeh seemed 
to realize it all We gave her a hat, a little 
cape, and some sugar, the usual panacea for all 
her woes, but all to no avail, and when we 
kissed her good-bye and drove away, she threw 
herself down and tore her hair, crying that her 
" Nakitte-sennie " were " ettin " ("her white 
women gone "), in an abandon of childish grief 
pitiful to behold. 

We had thirty miles to go before we eould 
reach the shelter of a roof. How anxiously we 




ITCH EN-WIND 






1H1 WIDE W0R1 D MAGAZINE. 



- - - 










I iKSES, SHE SAID. 



(,() Nc>\\"--<j<> i,)L'ICIC. 






t Flat ! 
n met our eye, its 
■id wife, in abject terror. 
• hi rds of si 
driven past, the n 
-• t 

W 
nud nV 

; was 
• me 

to 

uld 

r, Mary 
I 

rters. 

low 

The 

and 




V THE 
GIRL, ATTIZ- 

ZE.H — IT ; . rs ONE 

THE THREE SCHOOL- 



a hundred rounds of ammunition, and the guard- 
house had been provisioned and water provided. 
On the first sign of danger the women and 
children were to be taken hither, but everyone 
knew that the post was well-nigh defenceless in 
case of a well-organized attack. 

From the front and back porches 
we could see columns of light, grow- 
ing momentarily brighter, shooting 
up from all points of the compass — 
now light, now darker, according to 
the mysterious laws of Indian tele- 
graphy. 

How we dreaded the darkest hour 
before dawn — the favourite time for 
an Indian attack ! 

Calmly the Army women gathered 
their valuables into portable shape 
and hushed their fretful children. 
Outside we heard an occasional 
sharp, quick word of command. 
How relieved, how thankful we were 
when the sun rose upon our little 
band — pallid, wan with our vigil, hut 
safe ! And how gladly we welcomed 
the relief column when it marchea in ! 
Later we went back East unaer 
military escort, with undying me- 
mories of our serio-comic, well-nign 
tragic, experience — teaching the 
Indians in the wilderness. 




The Last Voyage of the "Island 'Belle. 99 

By George Rignold. 

The well - known actor here narrates an incident which happened while he was en route 
to New York on board the White Star liner " Germanic." A derelict schooner was sighted, 
with four men on board. She had been out for five months, and the survivors of her crew 

unfolded a terrible tale of privation and suffering. 

T was on my second voyage across 

the Atlantic — under engagement to 

tour in the United States with 

" Henry V."* — that an incident 

occurred which produced a vivid 
and lasting impression, not only on myself and 
my wife, who accompanied me, but, I think, on 
every passenger who witnessed the pathetic 
scene. 

Had I kept a diary I should have been able 
to give the exact latitude and longitude, but 
keeping a diary is a habit of which I have never 
been guilty. Suffice it to say that we were on 
board the good ship Germanic, of the White 
Star line, commanded by Captain Perry, and 
mid - Atlantic was about the locality. The 
weather had been favourable, though squally, 
and the usual monotony of " board-ship " life 
had hitherto prevailed. 

One morning, however, about 5 a.m., just as 
the day was breaking a dull grey, the ship 
suddenly stopped. All who have voyaged on 
a large ocean steamer will recall the somewhat 
uncanny experience of being roused out of sleep MR . 

by the Sudden Stoppage Of the rhythmic throb- From a Photo, by] this story. {Stump &° Co., Adelaide. 

bing of the engines and the vibrations pro- 
duced by the revolving of the screw. One 
finds oneself wide-awake sitting up in one's 
berth, wondering what on earth is the matter ; 

the almost supernatural 
stillness, broken only by the 
water lapping softly against 
the sides of the vessel, 
causes a vague feeLng of 
alarm ; the reasoning 
faculties are for the moment 
numbed, and one's great 
desire is to reach the 
deck immediately, and if 
there is c anger to see what 
it is. 

Most of the passengers, 
including ourselves, scram- 
bled on deck in hurried, 
motley toilets to inquire 
what was the matter. It 
was then ascertained that 
the captain had stopped 

THE WHITE STAR I.I VER" GERMANIC," ON BOARD WHICH MR. RIGNOI.D WAS A PASSENGER WHEN (-J^g g^jp beCaUSC he bid 

THE SURVIVORS OF THE WRECK OF THE ''ISLAND HEI.LE " WERE RESCUED. , . , r 

From a Photo, by Priestly & Sons, Egremont, Cheshire. Seen Something Oil the tar 




* Mr. Rignold has visited the United States and Australia several 
times, winning much success by his impersonation of Henry V. 
He will be familiar to Australians, moreover, as the man who built 
Her Majesty's Theatre, Sydney — at the time the most magnificent 
Theatre in the Colonies— where he produced a striking series of 
Shakespearian plays. 







nir. WIDE 



WORLD MAGAZINE. 



out. 

in 

n to 

the 

which all 

At length we 

■■ml. 

slowed 

i. until 

■in the 

,1 now see that 

ntlj wi 

• which 
1 li r bulwarks 



What a strange and tragic story of the sea 
was told in those few words ! The date he gave 
and that on which Ik- was now speaking denoted 
.in intervening period of five months; and the 
dismal spectacle we were now looking down 
upon gave ample food for the imagination to 
feed upon. 

The order was given for a boat to be lowered 
ami rowed alongside, which was done with 
amazing rapidity. Then, to our great surprise, 
n was found that the man was not entirely alone 
on th.it dismantled hull. Two loud and joyous 
barks were heard, and a large Newfoundland 
dog appeared. He, strange to say, seemed in 
1 health and spirits, for he was the first to 
spring into the boat, evidently quite appreciating 




• 



: UMI' OF Mil- FOREMAST. 



;.. I oth her 

_ ; .t or ten feet 

: oas 

mm the 

the la! 
d ck. 

tiding 

ving his 

ir ■ aptain 

ou want ? " 

i the sub- 

" Will 

17th 



the long-looked for reprieve. Then more dis- 
coveries were made. From the deck-house our 
men carried a half-unconscious boy, with hollow 
• heeks and sunken eyes, and placed him gently 
in the boat. Next a tottering figure with frozen, 
useless hands, swathed in rags, was helped in, 
and after him another dishevelled and be- 
wildered being, carrying some papers beneath 
his arms. He, we afterwards discovered, was 
the captain of the schooner. Lastly came the 
^aunt, dark man who had signalled us. There 
they were — the dog, a Lascar sailor with frozen 
hands, a half-dead boy, the dazed-looking 
captain, and the tall American, all in a state 
of pitiable emaciation. 

The boat came alongside and was hauled up 






THE LAST VOYAGE OF THE "ISLAND BELLE." 



85 




in two and sending 
ensuring 



"from the deck-house our men carried a half-unconscious boy.' 



bodily with all on board. There was a brief 
consultation between the officers of our ship, 
and then the great liner swung round and ran 
over the poor, water-logged derelict, cutting her 

her to the bottom, thus 
the safety of other vessels. The 
waters closed over the battered wreck with 
placid indifference, and the Germanic once 
more ploughed along on her way westward. 

It is needless to say that the rescue of the 
derelict's crew was discussed during the whole 
of the day. A concert on behalf of the 
castaways was organized for the following 
evening, and this realized seventy pounds, 
which sum, it was arranged, was to be divided 
among the survivors according to their grade. 

All of us were naturally anxious to learn the 
details of the disastrous voyage which had led 
to the pitiable plight in which we found them, 
and, as the poor waifs began to recover, we 
gradually gleaned, piece by piece, the whole 
grim story. It appeared thac the man 



who had first signalled us, and whom 
we had naturally taken for the captain 
or mate, was only a seafaring man 
working his passage. He was of a pro- 
nounced American type, lithe and 
gaunt, with a strong accent, and we 
afterwards learned that when misfortune 
overtook the little ship he had become 
the ruling spirit. It was his iron will 
and dauntless energy that practically 
pulled them through, for the captain 
had collapsed under the terrible mental 
and bodily strain, though at the last 
his instinct had led him to bring away 
his ship's papers. The name of the 
schooner, it appeared, was the Island 
Belle. She was owned by her captain, 
and she and her cargo comprised the 
whole of his worldly possessions. There 
had been twelve souls on board at 
starting — the captain, his wife and two 
children, the mate and four sailors, a 
boy, a negro cook, the American, and 
the dog, which, we were told, was able 
to haul on a rope like a man. 

After being about a week out they 
fell in with bad weather, which lasted 
some eight or ten days. They were 
much knocked about, some of the 
spars were broken, and most of the 
canvas was blown away. Altogether 
they were in a perilous condition, but 
when the weather had slightly mode- 
rated they were sighted by an ocean 
steamer. She offered them assistance, 
which was accepted to a certain extent. 
The captain of the little craft said he 
would stick to his ship, but he would be grateful 
if they would take his wife and children on 
board and carry them to New York. The wife 
and children were accordingly transhipped with 
some difficulty, and after he had been given some 
spare canvas to replace what he had lost and 
some extra stores, the husband parted from 
those so near and dear to him, in the fond hope 
of a happy meeting in the near future. 

They soon made the little ship trim again, and 
continued the voyage, though she had been 
hlown far out of her course. All went well for a 
time, until the weather again changed and they 
encountered another and heavier gale than the 
previous one. Then the great struggle 
commenced. With pitiless persistency the 
storm raged on, making havoc with the sails 
and spars, which were now almost beyond repair, 
and driving the vessel farther and farther 
towards- the icy north. The merciless cold 
began to freeze the spray upon the rigging 
and sails into ice. Their only safety lay in 






I hi; wide world magazine. 



id, which requ 

listed their 

the terrible 

|uall, 

I his fell in 

, dangerous 

. the 

■ themselves from 

. an extra strain 

and presently 

ving the schooner 

the m< rcy ol the storm, 

.Jit. I'he order was 

and take in what 

ire foresail. Four 

■ ij ■-. th ratlins to 

rid trying with numbed hands to 

-. while the hitter wind all 

Suddenly 

. and th 

of matchwood just 

and all came crashing 

lown in a g I One man went 

n no more, one broke his 

■ 

itly 

rig a i 

I 

■ 

numlx 

-nt. 

that 

t he- 
she 
labo- up the 

d with 




long this state of affairs lasted, though they 
gathered from the ever-increasing cold that they 
were being driven still farther north. They 
kept at the pumps as long as their strength 
lasted, but still the water gained in the hold, 
and meanwhile the ice was accumulating on the 
wave-washed deck. The wreckage beneath 
which the two dead men lay buried retarded the 
water from flowing off to such an extent that it 
ime, altera few days, a solid block of ice, 
increasing in bulk hour ■ by hour, and conse- 
quently weighing the vessel down still deeper 
in the water at the bows. Through this icy 
sepulchre the dead men, wonderfully magnified, 
could be faintly discerned. 

The sailor with the broken thigh died within 
a few hours, and was put overboard. The negro, 
whose hands became badly frozen, also died 
soon after. The captain gave him what scanty 
comfort his own deck-cabin afforded, but the 
poor wretch became delirious and beyond hope, 
and crawled about on his hands and knees, till 
death released him. The only thing left on 
board that would sink was the stove from the 

deck - house — long 
since rendered use- 
less from the lack of 
means of lighting it 
— and this was tied 
to his feet and he 
was also committed 
to the waves. 

The survivors 
huddled together in 
thedeck-house, utiliz- 
ing the dog for 
warmth. By this 
time the ship's stores 
were entirely exhaus- 
ted, and they were 
obliged to have re- 
course to the cargo, 
consisting of raw salt 
cod. This had to be 
got out of the hold, 
and the hatch was 
consequently re- 
moved and the salted 
fish fetched up. But 
they found it impos- 
sible to subsist on 
the nauseous stuff, 
full of salt as it was, 
and so, in order to 
get the brine out of 
it, it was tied by a 
line and trailed in 
the water as the 
•i ice."' vessel drifted, The 



THE LAST VOYAGE OF THE "ISLAND BELLE." 



87 



famished men found that even then it was hard 
to swallow, but the dog seemed to thrive on it 
and willingly imparted the warmth of his body 
to his frozen companions. Fortunately they 
had drinking water in sufficiency, thanks to the 
wonderful forethought of the American, who 
had collected quantities of snow during the 
driving squalls. 

Gradually the severity of the weather began 
to abate and the ice slowly melted. With 
anxious eyes they watched the heavy block in 
which the dead men were entombed gradually 



vessel slightly lifting in 



diminishing, the 
con sequ ence. 
The welcome 
change in the 
temperature in- 
creased day by 
day, and eventu- 
ally they were 
able to get at the 
bodies of the 
poor fellows who 
had been frozen 
up for so long, 
and put them 
overboard. 

The weather 
now admitted of 
an observation 
being taken, by 
which they 
learned their 
position. They 
had drifted into 
the Gulf Stream, 
whose warm cur- 
rent was carrying 
them back to the 
more temperate 

regions from which they had been blown, and 
consequently into the track of Atlantic steamers. 
It was thus that our captain saw them and came 
to their rescue, as I have described. 

As we neared New York, Captain Perry 
arranged a morning for the division of the 
money that had been subscribed for the relief 
of the sufferers ; and a touching sight it was to 
see the woebegone little band pass in turn 
across the deck to receive their share. The 
money was divided as follows: The captain, 
forty pounds ; the American, fifteen pounds ; 
the Lascar with the disabled hands, ten pounds ; 
and the boy, five pounds. 

The shipwrecked captain, accompanied by 
his dog, was the last to step forward to receive 
his portion. Several of the passengers had 
expressed a wish to purchase the dog, and many 



substantial sums were offered to its owner, all of 
which, however, he steadily refused, saying he 
did not wish to part with him. But on the 
morning of which I am writing, with unosten- 
tatious dignity, he asked Captain Perry to accept 
him as a token of his gratitude to the man who 
had changed the course of his ship to come 
to their rescue. The two men clasped hands 
silently — there was a mutual understanding of 
acceptance— and these two, although unused to 
the display of their feelings, betrayed their 
emotion by the moisture in their eyes. 

There is still to be recorded a singular episode 




HE ASKED CAPTAIN TERRY TO ACCEPT HIM AS A TOKEN OF HIS GRATITUDE. 



in connection with the ill-fated owner of the 
Island Belle. When we reached New York 
the incidents of the wreck were freely circulated 
through the papers and much sympathy was 
aroused. This finally found expression in a 
public subscription, which reached a good 
round sum. The money was intended to 
purchase the ruined man — who, it will be re- 
membered, had a wife and two children— a new 
ship, which was to be called the Good Luck. 
But, strange to say, he disappeared — disappeared 
as completely as if the earth had swallowed him 
— and neither he, his wife, nor his children were 
ever heard of again. Advertisement after 
advertisement appeared, but there was no 
response, and eventually the money was 
divided among the charities of the city of 
New York. 



The Wild Tribes of Sakhalin. 



I'.\ ( ii \ki is H. II wvi s. B.A. 



I 



the interior of the dreaded island of Sakhalin. The natural 
centuated by the danger of attack by escaped convicts from 
wh prowl about the forests, rendered desperate through persecution 
and starvation. 




mtly asking me, 

i. ami what on 

earth 1 will 

Wide World 

particulai my 

• t that far 

nd, a full account 

• in my book, " To the 

published by 

utumn. 

S 

- 
I 

hundred i 

It 

■ 

asula. 

I 
:iall 

I 

ith 




reports that it was the worst Russian penal 
settlement in Siberia were sufficient temptations 
to a wandering Briton.* 

From Khabarovsk a steamer towing two barge- 
loads el convicts for Sakhalin brought me down 
the great River Amur as far as Nikolaevsk, a 
point on the mainland immediately opposite the 
island. 

Higher up the river one passes strange 
horse rafts, whose four-footed occupants fare 

better with pastures 
at hand than the 
passengers on the 
steamers, for the 
latter are often 
grounded on sand- 
banks for days at a 
time and pro\isions 
run short At Niko- 
laevsk I was not sur- 
prised on being told 
that if I reached the 
island I should pro- 
bably be shot by 
escaped convicts or 
killed by the natives. 
Regarding these 
warnings, however, as 
exaggerated, I took 
passage on a chance 
tramp -steamer and, 
after considerable 
difficulty, was drop- 
ped at Alexandrovsk, 
the chief penal settle- 
ment on the island. 
On landing I was 
immediately arrested; 
but, by the timely aid 
of an exiled nobleman 
and a drunken mer- 



- 

f-rom 



E HE Wore DURING HIS JOURNEY. 

a Photo. 



• ,: The Island of Murder- 
ers.' Mr. Hawes's description 
of the convict settlements of 
Sakhalin, appeared in our issue 
for March, 1903. — Ed. 



THE WILD TRIBES OF SAKHALIN. 



89 



chant, was eventually freed, and on the fifth day 
after my arrival promptly made for the interior 
—to the great relief, I have no doubt, of the 



course, it is possible to see an occasional 
Russianized specimen in Alexandrovsk, or at 
the neighbouring village of Arkova. The 




From a 



Governor and the chief officials. After a fifty 
miles journey, partly over a convict-made road 
and partly along forest tracks, in a rude, spring- 
less vehicle, my farther advance by this method 
of travelling was barred by dense forests. 
Carrying, as I was, tent, canvas, shubas (rough 
fur or sheep-skin coats), food in the shape of 
black bread, rice, etc., and — for barter — quanti- 
ties of buttons, coarse leaf-tobacco, bricks of 
tea, gunpowder, shot, caps, cloth, needles, etc., 
transport presented considerable difficulties, for 
the forests are practically impenetrable, and in 
making short excursions into them I had to 
follow the tracks made by bears and other wild 
animals in passing to and from the river to 
their lairs. On Sakhalin there are two rivers 
of fair length, the Tima and the Poronai, each 
with a course of some three hundred miles, and 
these form the highways for native travel — in 
summer by canoe, in winter by dog-sledge. 

It having been my good fortune to strike the 
River Tima, my plan was now to follow it to its 
mouth — two hundred miles distant — and then, 
if possible, to coast along the north-eastern ride 
of the island for about one hundred miles or so, 
visiting en route the tiny villages of the tribes 
living on the banks of the river and in the 
bays. It was in this region that I met my 
first primitive Sakhalin Gilak, although, of 

Vol. xii.— 12. 



HALTS' GIl.AKs. 



\Photo. 



above photograph represents a group of 
these curious people, whose Mongol features 
are somewhat modified by a Tungus strain. 
They wear their black hair in pigtails, and their 
Manchu tunics contrast with sealskin moc- 
casins. At the back of the group a man will be 
seen holding a bear-spear, concerning which I 
shall have more to say later on. 

It was with a buoyant feeling of expectancy 
and the hope of adventure to come that I set 
out to explore a land quite unknown to my 
own countrymen. These natives, whose mode 
of living and primitive beliefs are as the poles 
asunder from our own, had never seen an 
Englishman before. In their eyes he was a 
prince who came from a far-off country — so far 
away that no words of theirs could compass the 
distance. So limited were their notions of 
geography that a few weeks later one of them 
offered, with the help of three others, to take 
me in his canoe to the " end of the world " for 
a sum that would buy them a cauldron each ! 

My anxiety now was lest, having set out for an 
expedition of several weeks' duration, I should be 
thwarted by lack of transport. Entirely depen- 
dent as I was upon native canoes, I had arrived 
at an- unfortunate moment, for all the men-folk 
were engaged in catching fish for their winter 
stores. While I was wondering how I was going 



90 



THE WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 



led a canoe 

. the 
them and 

f thi w 

the 
\ they 
,1 roub 

lown 
put 
my interpreter and 
was a con- 
thousand and 
Ith who owned 

I 

I lad 
in- 

which we now 

the 

■ 

the 

inta had a 

[)U- 

irned by soldiers who were 

I • 

we got 

fe or property. The 

us farther on 

to select two 

jbtful ' t, who 

ill a primitive boat 

■•vn the river, on the 

natives willing to make 

i I had in ards 

ral failures, we 

ner 

with the help of a 

ir us. The 

th our new 





From a] 



THE AUTHOR S CANOE ON THE RIVER, 



acquaintance, Weinka by name, in the bow, and 
his friend, Armunka, in the stern. My inter- 
preter is seen sitting at the bottom of the boat, 
and my own place was vacated while I took the 
photograph. 

For main days we paddled down the river, 
camping at night on sandy reaches, the only 
disadvantage oi which was that they were the 
particular and private property of the bears 
which came down to drink and fish under cover 
of darkness. These were so numerous that we 
saw in the course of two and a half days the 
tracks of about one hundred on the banks. 
These nights were periods of excitement and 
frequent false alarms. To protect ourselves 
from the bears we barricaded one end of our 

hastily - erected 
shelter — the end 
where our heads 
lay — while the 
other end was left 
open for rapid 
egress if necessary. 
We could have 
warned off prowl- 
ing beasts by big 
fires, but it would 
have been fatal to 
light them at 
night on account 
of the greater 
danger from es- 
caped convicts 
rendered des- 
perate by starva- 
tion. 

The native vil- 
lages are scarcely 
worthy of the 
name, consisting, 
as they generally 
do, of five or six 
huts. These are 
very sparsely scattered about, and for more 
than three days we punted up this deserted 
waterway without seeing a habitation or a living 
soul. 

The yelping of great sledge-dogs and strings 
of fish drying in the sun, just visible at the bend 
of the river, announced our arrival at a village. 
Hailed from the shore in the Gilak tongue we 
were asked, " Have you any tobacco or bricks 
of tea?" We in turn wanted to know if they 
had any seal-skins or bear-skins, and, stepping 
gingerly from our frail craft, we waded ashore, 
guns in hand, followed by yelping dogs. The 
next photograph gives an excellent idea of one 
of the Gilak huts, which are built on piles, ex- 
cepting where a high river-bank gives security 




{Photo. 



THE WILD TRIBES OF SAKHALIN. 



9i 








From a] 



A TYPICAL GILAK HUT. 



{Photo. 



from floods. Behind, and half-hidden by the 
woman on the left of the picture, is the ladder, 
consisting merely of a log with three or four 
notches in it, by which access to the shanty is 
obtained. 

The following photograph shows a group of 
Gilaks, who were our hosts at a village named 
Niva, on the far north-eastern coast 
of Sakhalin. The head of the 
family was the chief man of the 
village and a person of some im- 
portance. His two wives — one of 
whom was the belle of the tribe 
— together with the inevitable 
sledge-dogs, complete a character- 
istic picture of Gilak domestic 
life. When we stumbled into the 
semi-darkness of the chiefs hut we 
collided violently with the cross- 
poles of the structure and with 
strange objects which were dangling 
therefrom, and the clouds of chok- 
ing smoke which filled the dwelling 
forced us to drop on to the floor. 
At last, our streaming eyes becom- 
ing accustomed to the strange 
atmosphere, I made out a mat 
composed of fish-skins spread in 
our honour upon the floor. The 
air was stifling, as well as smoky, for 
in the narrow compass of the hut 
squatted more than one family, 
according to European reckoning. From a] 



In all not fewer than twenty persons shared 
the hut with us that night. Besides the head man 
and his two wives, there were my host's brother 
and mother and children and several relations 
and friends. In the centre of the chamber was 
a rectangular space boarded in, in which a 
fire was always kept alight ; over this hung a 




GfLAKS at the village OF NfVA, 



iPfwto. 






HIT WIDE WORLD MAGA/INE. 



iired in 

is from some 

While the evening 

id man wished to 

u happened, had 

as he 

nly wei Fortu- 

mi any of us, and 

wall of the hut ; but 

, . who flung it on the 

• i devil in it ! " 

made ready the eve i 

fish and an infusion of brick 

round a birch basket 

the mere smell of which was 

chile my amiable hosts with their 

into shreds the uninviting 

_ them into the oil. ate them 

subsequent washing-up 

articularly edifying. ( me oi 

h( r platter by a plentiful 

mtinued the operation 

_ ' dish with grass, and finally 

h< r mi" casins. Supper over, 

s probably about sixty 

but or ninety, produced a pipe, 

nded to a three-year-old, who, 

from th< . hearth, lighted 

ir experimental puffs, 

Imother. 

I lay there on the fish-skins, 

round pig-tailed crea- 

the river and play- 

. who could not conceive of 

the forest, who devoured 



raw fish, and were innocent of ever having 
washed 1 wondered whether my good friends 
in Europe, if they knew the company I was 
keeping, would receive me back into their 
drawing rooms. Above my head hung fishing- 
nets and the axe with which the head of the 
house fashioned his canoes from tree-trunks, 
birch-bark bowls for water and seal-oil, and 
strange-looking cradles like butchers' trays, one 
of which a fond father or perhaps obedient 
husband was diligently swinging. Stowed away 
in the corners was an amazing melee oi children, 
skins of fish, dogs, seals, and reindeer. From 
the roof hung two small pine twigs, which we 
were informed had only to be placed on a sick 
child to insure its recovery. 

The Gilaks' staple article of food is dried fish, 
but in summer they are able to add to their 
menu such luxuries as bilberries, cranberries, a 
few roots and cedar nuts. In fact they live very 
much like their friend and enemy the bear. At 
the salmon-spawning season Bruin, who, like 
the Gilaks. has a special liking for salmon heads, 
will steal down at night to the river edge, catch 
as many as twenty or thirty salmon, devour the 
heads only, and throw away the bodies. I 
remember on one occasion we were suffer- 
ing for want of flesh-food, and even our 
stock of black bread was gone. Winter was 
upon us, the birds had migrated, and the 
spawning season was over, so we were 
reduced to a cup of boiled rice, until our 
natives had the good fortune to shoot a seal, 
which they prepared as a piece de resistance in 
another sense than a chef would use the term. 




/ *£ 




■ 






FISH BY THE RIVERSIDE. 



[ Photo. 



THE WILD TRIBES OF SAKHALIN. 



93 




case, and this is a rather unusual 
practice, for as a rule this tribe 
always spear the salmon and build 
little weirs from which they catch 
them in a hand-net. The canoe 
drawn up under the stage is 
exactly similar to the one we used 
on our travels. The craft are 
simply hewn with an axe out of a 
poplar tree trunk, and form won- 
derfully light racing craft ; but it 
is absolutely necessary for safety 
to sit exactly in the middle, and 
not to recline on one side or the 
other. In the picture shown at 
the top of this page is seen another 



From a] 



A NATIVE BIRCH-BARK CANOE. 



[Photo. 



Four or five days after this, while 
on the upper reaches of the Tima, 
we were surprised and delighted 
to come upon two natives with a 
boat-load of salmon. Our boat- 
men immediately drew their knives, 
whipped off the head of a salmon, 
and began tearing with their teeth 
the mucilaginous portion of the 
cheeks. 

The picture at the bottom of 
the preceding page was taken at 
spawning time, and shows one of 
their curious methods of preparing 
the fish. High upon the staging, 
above the reach of the dogs, a 
Gilak and his wife may be seen 
cleaning, slicing, and hanging fish. 
A seine net has been used in this 





THE RICHEST MAN IN THE WORLD "—HE OWNED THIRTY-FIVE REINDEER! 

Front a Photo. 



form of craft — a birch-bark 
canoe, used by the Golds, 



From a] 



THE AUTHOR S OROTCHON HOSTS. 



[Photo. 



tribal neighbours of the Amur 
Gilaks. 

Dwelling alongside the 
Gilaks, at least along the 
north - eastern coast of the 
island, is a tribe called 
the Orotchons. Racially they 
have very much more of the 
Tungus strain in them than 
the Gilaks. In the accom- 
panying photograph will be 
seen one of my Orotchon 
hosts, his children, and his 
old mother, whom I disturbed 
in her operations of cleaning 
fish. On the evening of that 
day I took up my quarters in 






1111 WIDE WORLD MAi'.A/.lM.. 




ID WILL BE SEEN 
J- nun a Photo. 

m at the next village who, 
lemnl the " richest man 

wealth, after all, is only rela- 
tion Yanderbilt may have 
• he showed me his vast 
wit, no fewer than thirty-five 
rtant personage and 
; of h irtrayed on the previous 

fishermen, and 

their fish in their huts, the 

not particularly pleasant, 

i, has its advantage 



over that of the 
(iilaks. Store- 
houses are built, 
as here shown in 
the picture, in 
which to place 
the dried fish, 
and to prevent 
the attacks of 
rats and other ro- 
dents it is usual 
to place little 
umbrella-shaped 
pieces of birch- 
bark on the piles 
supporting the 
structure. I have 
said that the 
smoke-curing of 
fish by the Orot- 
chons has its 
advantage, since 
tin' ( 'iilaks, who only dry -cure, are dependent on 
a sunny August ; for if it be a rainy month then 
a very small quantity of fish will be dried, winter 
stores will soon give out, and many Gilaks will 
die of starvation. A few who live by the sea 
will eke out the winter by the method of fishing 
illustrated by my last picture. The scene is in 
the Straits of Tartary, the frozen sea between the 
mainland and the island, which is here about 
sixty miles across. The Gilaks, warmly dressed 
in dog-skins, have made a hole through the ice, 
to which dorse are coming to breathe, only to 
be quickly caught by the watchers above. 



STOREHOUSES FOR DRIED FISH. 




.' 



gIlaks fishing through a hole in- tiif. ice. 

(To be continued.) 



[Photo. 




By Colonel Julius G. 

Tucker, late U.S. Consul 

at Martinique. 

Colonel Tucker here tells an 
amusing story illustrating the 
gross superstition which pre- 
vails among the lower orders 
of Mexicans. It is safe to 
say that John Merriweather's 
" wake " and the strange 
occurrences that happened 
thereat will be remembered 
for many a day in Edinburg, 
Hidalgo County, Texas. 




HE Mexicans as a race are extremely 
superstitious, this being especially 
the case with the lower classes, who 
firmly believe in ghosts, hobgoblins, 
witches, and devils, attributing any- 
thing which they cannot readily understand to 
supernatural causes. 

The Mexicans living along the borders of the 
Rio Grande, both in Mexico and Texas, are 
particularly ignorant, and many instances of 
their belief in the supernatural have come 
under my notice during a long sojourn amongst 
them. 

Some years ago I had occasion to visit the 
town of Edinburg, situated on the Rio Grande, 
in Hidalgo County, sixty miles above Browns- 
ville, Texas. I arrived there about five o'clock 
p.m., and went to the house of a Mexican friend 
to spend the night. Both during and after sup- 
per I noticed a state of suppressed excitement 
prevailing in the family, which caused me to ask 
the head of the house if anything unusual had 
happened. He looked inquiringly at his wife, 
who turned her head away as though not 
wishing to be questioned. After pondering a 



moment, he remarked, gravely, " Senor Coronel, 
a miracle has happened ! " 

"A miracle!" I repeated. "What wis it? 
I should like to hear about it." 

Here the good wife interposed. Devoutly 
crossing herself, she said to her husband in 
warning tones : " Tomasito (little Tom), it is 
not good to speak about such matters, for by 
doing so you may incur the animosity of the 
evil spirits and bring disaster upon yourself and 
your family." 

Tomasito, however, being pressed to speak, 
disregarded his wife's caution and told me an 
extraordinary story. 

"Senor Coronel," he began, "you know the 
carpentero Americano (American carpenter), 
Merriweather, who lives here ? " 

"Of course I do," I replied. 

"Well," said he, " he died two days ago." 

"You are joking, aren't you?", queried I. 
" I met him this evening as I came into town, 
and he was anything but dead then." 

" Yes*" replied the Mexican, " that is just it 
— that is the miracle." 

By dint of inquiry I finally succeeded in 









I Hi w [I)E tt'ORI l> MAGAZINE. 



,. which ran as 

■ 

- i lied, 
that time in 1 < 

id ol a 

i i 5 a widower 

insell l>v occasional 

ui two days before 

• heard to groan in 

.1 b) the roadside) 

ning, and next 

lead upon his bed, which 

\ impn 'lit of some 

and he was prepared 

1 upon two chairs, 
he should be buried 

: to sit up with the corps< . 

>U( h a large number being 

that they might keep up one 

They likewise provided 

ral bottles of mescal, or 

same pui 
ck at night one of the 
k i if cards the Mexi- 
- and proposed a 




I KROH. 



small game o( " monte " in order to vary the 
monotony of their vigil. This proposition was 
accepted with acclamation, and as there were 
no < hairs in the room, and only a small table, 
a blanket was spread upon the floor close to the 
coffin. Upon this were placed the money to 
be wagered and two bottles of mescal. The 
game proceeded in a regular and satisfactory 
in inner for about an hour — and then the 
miracle happened ! 

It seems that Merri weather awoke about this 
time from an epileptic fit, which had thrown him 
into a species of trance, and thus caused people 
to think him dead. He looked about him in 
astonishment ; lie was thunderstruck, as he 
afterwards declared, to find himself respectably 
laid out in a coffin and dressed in his Sunday 
cloihes, and for awhile he thought that he was 
actually dead. His numbed faculties had not 
yet got into proper working order. In the 
meantime, feeling very chilly, and seeing two 
bottles of mescal within his reach, he decided 
to take a drink. 

He had not stirred when he recovered con- 
sciousness, and the company, being deeply 
interested in their game, never looked at the 
coffin :*so Merriweather, without saying a word, 

reached down from 
his coffin and picked 
up a bottle. The 
Mexican nearest the 
bottle, seeing it rise 
into the air, sud- 
denly looked up 
and, to his horror, 
saw the corpse in 
the very act of rais- 
ing the bottle to its 
mouth ! He gave 
a yell of terror, up- 
set the other bottle, 
and bolted headlong 
out of the room, 
followed by his 
companions. 

M eanwh i le, 
M e r r i wea t her 
wriggled himself 
out of the coffin, 
which, as he said, 
was rather nar- 
row, took another 
drink, and pro- 
ceeded to collect 
t h e scattered 
money, which 
amounted to be- 
tween seven and 
eight dol lars. 



JOHN MERRIVVEATHER'S "WAKE. 



97 



Gathering the cards together, it occurred to 
him to ascertain how the game would probably 
have terminated but for the unfortunate inter- 
ruption caused by his awakening, so he care- 
fully mixed the cards and began to play " monte 
solitaire." 

In the meantime the whole village had 
become aroused, and it was proposed by some 
hold spirit to go back and ascertain what the 
" ghost " was doing. No one being willing to 
go alone, however, a crowd of about fifteen men 
and two women started en masse for the house 
and peeped fearfully in at the open door. 

Merriweather was sitting quietly upon the 
floor dealing the cards. He was dressed in 
black, and the two flickering candles behind 
cast a fantastic dancing reflection of himself 
against the whitewashed wall opposite. 

The crowd saw Merriweather dealing the cards 
and heard him making loud remarks in doing so, 
and opposite they saw as plainly as could be his 
Satanic Majesty (it was, of course, the shadow). 
They only looked once, then they gave utter- 
ance to a combined yell and ran for dear life, 
upsetting the women in their mad haste to get 
away. 

The two women fainted, as might be expected, 
and were left lying in the road while the gallant 
men folk raced for a place of safety. 
After their first fright had somewhat 
subsided it was determined to rescue 
the women, and two of the most cour- 
ageous men crawled to- 
wards the spot where 
they lay. When they 
neared them one of the 
women went into hys- 
terics and commenced 
" howling like a mad 
coyote," as Tomasito put 
it. This at once fright- 
ened the would-be res- 
cuers away, as they de- 
clared that the Evil One 
had stopped playing 
cards with Merriweather 
and was now 
himself by 
the woman. 

In the course of time, 
however, the cries ceased, 
and then another attempt 
was made to rescue the 
women. This succeeded, 
the pair being uncere- 
moniously dragged away 
by their feet until they 
reached a spot some dis- 
tance from the house, 



when they were carried home and forthwith 
put to bed. 

In the meantime Merriweather had become 
greatly interested in his game ; he heard the 
commotion outside, but paid no attention to it. 
He had likewise taken several more drinks, 
which made him drowsy, so he decided to go to 
sleep. The coffin being handy, he gathered up 
the money, which, together with the cards, he 
deposited therein. Then he took the blanket, 
scrambled into the coffin, covered himself 
carefully up, and was soon sleepng the sleep 
of the just. 

As for the citizens they held an impromptu 
meeting, at which it was decided that someone 
should go and ascertain what had become of 
Merriweather's ghost and his visitor. 

Volunteers were called for for this desperate 
enterprise, and four young fellows stepped 
forward who, after screwing up their courage by 
a big drink of mescal, proceeded to investigate, 
promising to report immediately. 

They kept their promise faithfully, for they 
had been absent barely three minutes when 
with blanched faces and breathless from running 



amusing 
tormenting 




HE ENCOUNTERED THE WOMAN CARRYING 
A COFFEE-POT, WHICH SHE DROPPED." 



Vol. 



xii. — 13, 






THE WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 



re the meeting 

mbled 

led some 

jumped 

I 

state of 

ovenng, 

ubtedly 

p to be 

the room through 

ither lying in 



Merriweather, meanwhile, made himself at 
home. He raised the coffee-pot from the floor 
where it had dropped, hunted about for some- 
thing to eat, found it, sat down by the fire to warm 
himself, and thoroughly enjoyed his breakfast. 

He had become aware by this time that the 
people considered him dead and were afraid to 
approach him, so that when, in the course of 
halt an hour, a number of men came near the 
door to investigate, he suddenly turned about, 
made a face at them, and said " Shoo ! "—at 
which they all scattered in terror. It took him 







HEM, AND 



d un inimously to 

the following morning. 

morning dawned 

my arriv ther fright 

rnunity ; for it appears that, 

n the i: Mi-rnweather 

He got out of his 

f a Mexican 

t some 

ountered 

which she 

_ out of the 

: by her 



fully an hour before he could convince anyone 
that he was really and truly alive and in the 
flesh. 

After this old Merriweather always kept his 
money — when he had any — in his cofifin, 
which he declared to be safer than any 
bank, as no Mexican would dare rob it. 
As a matter of economy he kept the coffin 
for future personal use, and was eventually 
buried in it when he died some six years 
later. 

But I do not think the good citizens of 
Edinburg were quite easy in their minds until 
he was safely buried. They had too vivid a 
recollection of that previous abortive " wake." 







Dynamiting an Ice-Jam — " English as she is Written " — The Boy Hermits of Maine— A Bush 
Boarding-House— A Moving Mountain — On the Way to the Andamans, etc., etc. 



HEY have a rough and ready way of 
dealing with floods in the States 
when there is any possibility of getting 
rid of them by prompt action. In 
February, iyoo, an ice-jam formed 
in the Auskerda River, New York State, "just 
above the Dolgerville Power Company's dam, 
and disastrous inundations resulted. The 




photograph which we reproduce below shows 
five charges of dynamite being exploded simul- 
taneously by electricity with a view to break- 
ing up the ice and allowing the imprisoned 
water to escape. The man in the foreground 
has just completed the circuit and caused the 
explosion. In the background of the picture 
will be seen a flooded road. 





From a Photo. by\ 



REMOVING AN ICE-JAM WITH DYNAMITE. 



[ John Mutchlcr, Ju>i. 






Illl WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 



9^ 



A£A* 






1 w 
taken 
■ 

i> one 

ingly 

• English 

by the 

that 

r our 

■ • way you 

utely 

only 

irt of 

son who 

d to 

mers 

n inary 

- tting, 

nderful, 

_ unusual— some- 

the 

Hence " Mosl Greater 
s it must be added, how- 
ire a good 
sh. 
nt wr: While in the 

summer I took the 
ring near Dexter. 
■ in a tree' and its two 
boys of about eight en, 
ome and gradually 
>ds. Here they 
■n in the photograph 
! it. They live in the hut 
- by hunting 

d instructive article 

Ikmen of different 

I of 

who lead goats 




round Spanish towns, milking the quantity 
required at your doors. Two curious milkmen, 
or rather boys, are here shown. They were 
photographed at Kimberley, South Africa. 
Most of the milk used for domestic purposes on 
the diamond fields is delivered in extraordinarily 
inappropriate vessels — old wine, beer, whisky, 
or vinegar bottles — often with only a wisp of 
paper stuck in the neck by way of a cork. The 
bottles, placed in canvas or linen carriers, are 
slung round the boys' necks or carried in the 
hand as depicted in the photograph. 

There is an old and threadbare joke against 
Americans to the effect that their sense of pro- 
priety impels them to dress 
horses and even table-legs 
in trousers. The people of 
the French Pyrenees do 
not go quite to this length, 
but they generally rig out 
their oxen in short dust- 
coats during the hot 
weather, these curious 
coats being a useful pro- 
tection against the swarms 
of flies which pester, the 
animals. The beasts are 
quite accustomed to their 
raiment and make no 
attempt to wriggle out of it. 
Even in the streets of up-to- 
date Biarritz — as shown in 
our photo, at the top of the 
following page — you may- 
see a pair of oxen wearing 
their white coats as they 
draw the dustman's cart. 



i.I.I-.V MILK-HOY! 

From a Photo. 




From a] 



THE BOY HERMITS OF MAINE. 



[Photo. 



ODDS AND ENDS. 



101 




4*M 



From a\ 



Dl'ST-COATS AT BIARRITZ. 



I Photo. 



We have next to consider a very remarkable 
photograph. It does not represent a mountain 
rising abruptly from the roadside, as one might 
suppose, but a vast heap of sand which has 
blown up from an adjacent sea beach ! This 
migratory sand-mountain has taken almost entire 
possession of a ranch which happened to lie in 
its course. It moves a few yards every year, 
and one of its sides is now within two 
or three feet of the ranch-house, and has 
swallowed up a flourishing oichard (the withered 
tops of the trees will be noticed projecting on 
the left), and will shortly have completely 
obliterated every trace of man's handiwork. 



About twenty-five years ago, when the house 
was first built, the sand had not commenced to 
pile up, but the cutting down of the timber 
which formerly sheltered the place gave the 
wind full sweep, and gradually the sand accumu- 
lated until it is now a vast mountain a mile and 
a half long. In the twenty-five years it has 
travelled half a mile from high tide mark. The 
sand does not move bodily ; the wind drives the 
loose grains over the top and they roll down 
the other side, and so the octopus creeps on its 
way, relentless and irresistible. This peculiar 
phenomenon is to be witnessed near Westport, 
Mendocino County, on the coast of California. 




From a] a moving mountain of sand which has overwhelmed a ranch. 



[Photo. 






THE WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 



aph we 

- 
ance. 

>ur- 
nine 

itiala, 

n the 

diminutive 

his 

giant 

d wai 

Id- 
iy morning 
Annakali 

tan- 

pital of 

Every 

rith people, and, look- 

over the country, the roads by 

which t • arc most distinctly marked even 

in tl by the rows <>f white figures. 

the market is held presents 

:d — rows upon rows of 

thatched stalls, appropriated in different quarters 




N ARE TWENTY I WO YEARS ol.D, ONE BEING 
QIW HI'. II AND THK " I HI R 

pyright Stereo Photo, by I , nderwood&' Underwood. 






to different kinds of pro- 
duce - - straw mattings, 
native water-pots, bamboo 
poles, bundles of wood, 
etc. A part of the market 
is given up to imported 
manufactured goods, such 
as ironmongery, crockery, 
and cotton goods ; and 
money-changers sit 
gravely at little round 
tables. But the people 
themselves are the real 
sight of the place — the 
thousands who make up 
the eager, talkative, 
bright - looking throng. 
Nearly all are in white 
lambas, the women bare- 
headed, with dark hair in 
multitudes of tiny braids, 
and the men wearing the 
large drooping straw hat 
of native manufacture. 
Looking down from the 
hill in the blue brightness 
of the Madagascar day, the white-draped multi- 
tude in it§ setting of red roads and houses makes 
a striking picture, as will be seen from the photo- 
graph. The French Government have estab- 
lished markets in all the leading villages round, 
which are said to have made a difference to this 
central one, but it is still a wonderful concourse. 







THe FRIDAY MORNING MARKET AT TANANARIVO, MADAGASCAR. 



{Photo. 



ODDS AND ENDS. 



T °3 




From a] 



A BOARDlNCi-HOUSE IN THE AUSTRALIAN BUSH. 



The photograph reproduced above shows an 
extraordinary boarding-house in the back-blocks 
of Australia. " Last January," writes the reader 
who sent us the picture, " I had occasion to go 
to Gulgong, a small township about eighteen 
miles from Mudgu, N.S.W. Like most of the 
inland towns Gulgong has only one street, con- 
taining several stores and 'hotels,' a post-office, 
a blacksmith's shop, a police-station, a branch 
bank, a dozen or two wooden boxes called 
private houses, with roofs of galvanized iron, and 
a number of 'humpies.' It was one of the 
latter that I photographed, thinking it a 
strange boarding - house, and wondering 
where they would put the boarders. It was 
only a low, two-roomed affair, built princi- 
pally of old packing-cases, with a roof of 
stringy bark and old kerosene tins flattened 
out. Being of an inquiring turn of mind I 
managed to get a look through the place. 
In the living-room there was a plank table 
resting on stakes driven into the clay floor. 
Everything was scrupulously clean. The 
slab shelves were covered with newspaper, 
and a variety of tins on them were polished 
up like silver. The walls were covered with 
illustrations from old Christmas papers from 
' home,' but the greatest surprise was to see 
in one corner a very fair piano ! I found 
that a plausible traveller had persuaded 
them to have it on the ' hire - purchase 
system,' and that the children were going 
to have lessons soon. The ' boarders" bed- 
room was furnished with a stretcher-bed 
made of saplings and a mattress consisting 
of three bushel bags full of straw. The 
sheets were clean and white, and on the 



floor were several kangaroo 
and opossum skins for 
mats. For cleanliness and 
hospitality — -' all the com- 
forts of home,' so to speak 
—I can safely recommend 
this quaint little bush 
boarding-house, in spite 
of its unprepossessing ex- 
terior." 

The next photograph we 
reproduce shows a very 
curious sight to be wit- 
nessed in Cyprus — a 
woman rolling the roof of 
the house to make it firm 
and hard and to keep the 
grass and weeds from 
growing. These houses 
are built entirely of mud, 
with holes cut in the side 
for window and door. 
The roof is made of branches stretched across 
and covered with mud. The roof -roller is 
made of stone, and is pulled about by pieces 
of rope looped over the ends. One trembles 
to think what would happen to the unfortunate 
occupants of the dwelling if the roller dis- 
covered a weak spot and descended into the 
living-room ! 

All criminals in India between the ages of 
eighteen and forty-five sentenced to imprison- 
ment for life are transported to the convict 
settlements in the Andaman Islands, a fate 



{Photo. 




From a] 



ROOF-nOLLIN'C IN CYPRUS. 



\Pkoto. 






III! WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 







V lo IMF. ANDAMAN ISLANDS. 



d upon by the natives as almost 

If, they having extraordinary 

in store tor them across the 

'] he photograph here repro- 

some hundred-and fifty 

i their way to the steamer 

ke them to the Andamans. ( Mi 

•rival there they are detained at the main 

on A i jik! for a certain time, after 

ermitted to work outside the 

a further ; finally granted 

and allowed to marry and settle 

ivn particular trades or callings. 

ver, leave the islands. 

nemy of man in the Swiss 

hn," or 

which ari 

• 

along the 

_ from south to 

it ' ause 

>f the snow 

that 

••vn, imperil- 

_ of the 
■ ri 
i 

I 

i 
■ 
When the 
•low all 
liately put out, 

11, rush 

/• roni a] 



setting the whole place in a blaze 
before the housewife knew what 
had happened. Such an occurrence 
happened not long ago in the small 
village of Ried, near Viege, in 
Canton Yalais ; and within a 
quarter of an hour ten dwelling- 
houses and thirty cowsheds and 
storehouses were one mass of 
(lames. Most of the stores of 
grain and hay, with nearly all the 
furniture and implements and some 
sixty head of cattle, fell a prey to 
this fire. A short time after- 
wards, while the " foehn " was 
blowing, some children in the 
village of Agaren were playing 
with matches when their little 
fire was caught up by the gale and carried on 
to the wooden tiles of a roof, setting fire 
to the house, and in a few minutes all the 
buildings south of that house were ablaze, 
forty five dwelling-houses and as many out- 
buildings were destroyed, but most of the 
cattle were saved. Of the whole village only 
the slate-covered chapel, one dwelling-house, 
and two cowsheds remained standing, and fifty 
families were left homeless and starving. A 
portion of Grindelwald — including the far-famed 
Bear Hotel — -was destroyed by fire during a 
" foehn " gale a few years ago. The photo, we 
reproduce represents a small " foehn " fire in 
the valley of the Rhone. 



[Photo. 




FIKE IN THE RHONE VALLEY. 




ME LARGER, AND IX SPRANG A MAX." 

E 114.) 



The Wide World Magazine. 



Vol. XII. 



DECEMBER, 1903. 



No. 68. 



tof!sw#>.W« 




From a] 



\Photo. 



By Lui.'Gf.r Sylbaris. 



When the rescue parties got to work in the smoking ruins of the annihilated city of St. Pierre, 
Martinique, the only person found alive out of its population of forty thousand was the author of 
this narrative, who was dug out of an underground cell in what had been the city gaol. He 
had been forgotten by his gaolers when the first mad panic seized the doomed town ! Words 
cannot express the accumulated horrors of his experiences during the ensuing days and nights 
experiences almost beyond the limits of human endurance. 




T was the night of May 7th, 1902. 
My sweetheart, the beautiful Julie 
Richard, and I were sitting at a table 
in the City Hall Plaza restaurant at 
St. Pierre, in Martinique, watching 
the crowds as they came and went. 

I had gone to Fort de France for Julie, during 
the afternoon. I reached her home about sun- 
set. In the north Mount Pelee was rumbling 
and moaning ; and every little while the earth 
shook and trembled slightly. But for Julie and 
me, who loved each other, there was no thought 
for anything save one another. 

We sat a while and talked, and then started 
off to St. Pierre. We thought very little of 

Vol. xii — 14. 



Pelee. It had been groaning for some time- 
had even sent showers of dust down upon the 
town. But it only made the people of St. 
Pierre curious, so that they joined excursions to 
see it. And Julie and I were too well used to 
grumbling Pelee to give it a thought. 

A merry company went over on the boat to 
St. Pierre from Fort de France. What were 
earth tremblings or the smoke from a groaning, 
fussy mountain to them ? The faint evening 
breeze on the water was sweet after the day's 
heat. The black shroud over the mountain hid 
its summit from us. The world was very dusty, 
but s*till very fair to live in. 

As for me, I had only one thought that 






mi. wild WORLD MAGAZINE. 



itiful. She was tall 

IIlT 

But 

on the 

i me 

She was 

rhen she looked 

then the whole 

1 was bom at 

■at now my father 

. in .1 small 

au. My work on 

■. during the daytime, 

in the evenin ught 

uld lake walks along the 

ir to some of the 

mbled when work 

'■' Sj laris, was 

r Julie. 1 never saw 
thai evening. My 
rom home. and. escaping the 
■ 

:iou- 
my 

lur- 
ant 

full 1 I 

- 

■ 
and 

■ 
I 
II 
d I 

. 
■ 

I 
t he 



me, 



not see me. It hurt, but Julie did not observe my 
pain. The place began to fill up. Julie became 
more radiant. The admiring, glances of the 
men who passed seemed to make her brighter ; 
1 became more and more sad every minute. 
She took less and less account of me with the 
arrival of one group after another. At last I could 
stand it no longer and said, reproachfully : — 

'■ fulie, you ought not to flirt. You must 
not." 

But she did not even seem to hear 
distributing her smiles right and left. 

The people sitting (lose by noticed my em- 
barrassment and appeared to enjoy it. I no 
longer felt hurt at Julie's thoughtless behaviour ; 
1 was beginning to be really angry. 

• Julie," I said, at last, " I treat you with con- 
sideration. Can you not show some feeling for 
me and stop smiling at these strangers?" 

" You be quiet ! Don't try to rule me," she 
answered, loudly. " I won't have it !" 

The people near us laughed audibly at this, 
and I felt my self-control vanishing. I cannot 
plead any excuse for my next act. I 
did not stop to think ; I did not reflect 
upon my folly; I felt only the humilia- 
tion of my position. I had been openly 



flouted 



girl 




• 



l HE EAR. 



I loved, and 1 
stretched out 
my hand and 
slapped her 
lightly on the 
ear. 

What an up- 
roar followed ! 
I could hear all 
sorts of epithets 
hurled at me. I 
was the centre of 
furious glances. 
Nothing more 
was needed to 
transform my 
irritation and 
quick repent- 
ance of my hasty 
action into a 
deep, over- 
mastering wrath 
—not for Julie, 
poor girl, but for 
these insolent 
city exquisites 
who, by their 
caieless glances 
of admiration 
for a pretty face, had 
turned my sweet- 
heart's head and had 



BURIED ALIVE IN ST. PIERRE. 



109 



tempted her to put me to shame in that 
public place. 

Julie promptly began to cry. I could see 
she was bitterly angry with me, and she turned 
away, while I faced the crowd and said nothing. 

Out of the midst of the throng there 
stepped a man who had been most persistent in 
ogling Julie. When he reached me he glared 
into my eyes. I looked at him steadily. 
Neither of us spoke. Suddenly he knocked me 
fiat on my back. The blow dazed me for a 
brief space, but 
I quickly came 
to myself and 
leaped to my 
feet. That blow 
was what I had 
needed for the 
past half-hour. 
1 had been sit- 
ting there, boil- 
ing with resent- 
ment, unable to 
d o an y t h i n g , 
compelled to 
suffer all the 
cruel smiles and 
gibes of those 
around until, at 
last, they tor- 
mented me into 
doing what 1 
had never 
dreamed of. 
But now there 
were men to 
fight, plenty of 
them — so many 
that, if I hoped 
to come out 
with my life, I 
must fight quick 
and hard, and 
with the first 
weapon I could 
seize. This, as 
luck would have 
it, was a bottle 
that stood on 
the table beside me. Before me, ready to 
strike again, was the man who had knocked 
me down. Around us, crowding in angrily, 
were the rest, all ready to attack me. A swift 
snatch at the bottle, an arm flung outward, and 
the vessel caught him full on the forehead. The 
dull, flat sound of the blow was followed by his 
falling senseless to the floor. 

An outcry went up from those around, half of 
dismay, half of rage. It was to be a regular 




battle, I could see. I backed into the cornei 
and stood ready for them. 

As I retreated fresh shouts arose at the door. 
Were more coming for me to fight ? I asked 
myself. But the crowd grew silent. Two 
policemen entered and demanded that the 
quarrellers should be pointed out. Every hand 
pointed accusingly towards mc. 

My late antagonist lay on the floor, as still as 
if dead. Julie was cowering in another corner, 
to which she had fled : she could not escape 

for the crush 
that surged 
around us. The 
policemen 
started to take 
me away. I 
turned to look 
at Julie. Weep- 
ing quietly in 
the corner, she 
did not seem 
aware of my 
presence ; so I 
turned sadly 
and departed, a 
policeman on 
either side of 
me. Once more 
I looked back 
and saw Julie 
still crying in 
the comer. 1 
never saw her 
again. 

It was but a 
step from the 
restaurant to the 
City Hall, and 
a number of 
steps, going 
deep down, led 
to the gaol in its 
basement. My 
name was en- 
tered in a book, 



the charge 



THE VESSEL CAUGHT HIM FULL ON THE KOREHEAD 



against me was 
noted, and I 
was led to a cell. The basement was divided by 
a corridor, with cells on either side. Mine was 
at the extreme end, against the foundation 
walls of the City Hall, which adjoined those of 
the Comedie Theatre de St. Pierre. Not a 
sound of the doings of men in the upper world 
could be heard in those depths. 

Once left to myself, I sat down on the straw 
of my cell floor. In the dark, alone, I had my 
first chance to think. Yet I could not form an 






TH1 WIDE W0R1 1> MAGAZINE. 



lickly . I 

! the hour 

iad happened long 

d to be dim 

in the world was 

I 

my 

■ 

But 

I 

■ 

shaking. 

: mu filed thunder that had 

•ound in my cars as I went to 

ght. I began to 

night before. 

I irly. I felt again the 

. n me taurarit. 

my eyes. I 

with whirh the bottle 

Was I a 

to be always on my 

■ J Would 

friends, liberty, 

n was I to 

■• the judge and 

to one 

rowding on 

i ad. 

I ; ned as a 

. It was the 




I LOOKED BACK AND SAW |l 1 I K STILL CKVING 



gaol attendant coming with my prison breakfast 
ol bread and water. 

1 ate little. 1 sat still, and my thoughts again 
began to run wild. Again, as in a vision, I saw 
the man 1 had struck lying quiet on the floor 

and Julie crying in the 
corner. 

Then, with a sudden- 
ness I cannot describe, 
the whole appearance 
of the tiny cell, to which 
my eyes were now con- 
fined, was changed. It 
was so quick, so com- 
plete, so unaccount- 
able, that I could make 
no effort to understand. 
The air darkened. 
Even the little light 
that somehow filtered 
into my cell was blotted 
out. I heard the run- 
ning of feet through the 
corridor of the gaol 
overhead. Appalling, 
1 ncom pre he n s i b le 
noises of many sorts 
seemed to come from 
all quarters. In the 
intense darkness I 
could see nothing. 

Blinded, and with 
hearing confused, I 
could still feel. What 
I felt no other human 
being in St. Pierre felt 
and survived to de- 
scribe. With the same 
dumfounding sudden- 
ness that attended the obliteration of the light all 
the air in my cell seemed to be converted into an 
invisible fire. It was everywhere, from wall to 
wall, from floor to roof — in my eyes, my nostrils, 
my mouth, and my lungs ; on all parts of my 
body, clothed and uncovered — a dry, scorch- 
ing, flameless fire, hotter than the blaze of any 
furnace. 

I wondered whether I could cry out. I tried. 
My voice, in its full strength, echoed above the 
strange, terrifying noises that encompassed me ; 
and it seemed to be hurled back upon me, as if 
the demons that were abroad had snatched up 
its echoes and pelted me with them. But no 
sound of another human voice came back to me. 
I shouted again ; I yelled madly, and, as my 
voice, with a sudden weakening, broke in its 
volume, I cried to whoever might hear to come 
and let me out. » 

Hut still there was no answer. 



BURIED ALIVE IN ST. PIERRE. 



] ! I 



"• 




trtww 
I v • t 




THE UNDERGROUND CELL IN THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE CITY HALL AT ST. PIERRF. IN WHICH THE AUTHOR WAS IMMURED. 

From a Photo, by Fverard Fade lie, Dominica. 



That flameless fire, that awful heat, was 
still, more intense, more consuming than 
I was helpless. A great fear settled 
upon me — an unreasoning dread, different 
the vague terror I had at first instinc 
experienced. Then 
my brain cleared and 
I began to consider 
my position and de- 
bate what could be 
happening. This 
heat could not be 
from a fire in the 
gaol, for no one ap- 
peared to take me 
out, and no sound 
came as if anyone 
were attempting to 
fight flames. 

While I tried to 
find some explanation 
the world began to 
move. Not the small 
world of my cell, but 
the solid earth. The 
walls of the City Hall 
— against whose foun- 
dations my cell rested 
— q uivered and 
wavered ; I could 
hear them and feel 



I I'DGER SVI.BARI 

From a] 



there them swaying, although the jetty blackness of 
ever. the deepest night was all about me. Was the 
down whole towering mass going to crumble and 
from overwhelm me in its fall ? 

tively I must cry out again. If there was a man 

within reach of my 
voice who could come 
to me, my call must 
bring him. It was a 
strange, new voice 
that went out into 
the darkness and the 
heat — so thin, so 
weak, now high like 
a child's, now hoarse 
and gasping like a 
dying man's — that it 
frightened me. And 
there was never an 
answer. I had been 
left alone. 

A new sound came. 
It was not trembling 
walls this time ; it 
was the deep note of 
falling buildings, amid 
a thunder of other 
noises. Was the gaol 
indeed to be my 
grave? It had seemed 
so strong, so solid. I 




THE AUTHOR, WH{ 
IN ST. 1'IERRE. 



ED ALIVE 

[Photo. 






I HI \\ IDE WORl MAGAZINE. 



they did, 
,, d me 
tions ol 
lain mi 

my cell was 

they fell ? Was 1 

neath a mountain of 

of my narrow tomb, 
i that 

.id 



As 1 sought desperately to escape the rising 
tide ol hot mud I began to smell something 
like sulphur, which was attended by a burning 
ation difficult to describe. It seemed as if 
the end must, indeed, be at hand. Was the 
. in truth, on lire? The intense heat from 
which 1 suffered seemed to prove that it was ; 
but why, 1 asked myself, did not the engines 
come to put it out ? 

It was most strange, I reflected, that I could 

hear nothing Horn above — not a sound to 

indicate that a human being was near. I was 

oming accustomed to the thought that I had 

i forgotten and would be left to die in my 

underground cell. 



But why should the 




'. \ AGONY OF FEAR. 



that I might be able to find 

1 It a fierce burning 

f my feet I '1 down to find 

I felt the sensation, 

thing iike hot mud 

I could feel it, 

like molten 

[ fled t t of the room to 

nt panting. Then 

I felt 1 le burning on my 

jd that had come so 

usly into my cell was pur- 

• was filling with it 

k with ith in another 

I to be en- 

tth — killed by 

I if fear. 

relentlessly. 
It burned me 
I fell in tr; 
' ■ 



gaol be allowed to burn, in the centre of the 
city, without an effort being made to save it ? 

The last human sound I had heard was the 
hurrying of feet along the corridor, just before 
the heat attained such an intense stage. But I 
did not know whether it was because the other 
fearful noises had drowned out the sounds of 
man's presence, or whether my own agonies of 
body and mind had prevented me from hearing. 

Still I perceived none of the familiar signs of 
fire. The awful choking smell of sulphur grew 
well nigh unbearable. I could scarcely breathe ; 
d as if my throat must buist. The hot 
mud still pursued me, and, work as hard as I 
could to avoid it, I could not help being still 
more fearfully scalded. 

After a time, however, the pains began to 
dimmish. I cannot tell when the first relief 
came, or how long my suffering lasted. It 
appeared a lifetime. My sensations became 
dulled. The thick darkness, the pungent, acrid, 
choking sulphur, the crashing of falling masonry 
upon the roof of my cell — all seemed forgotten, 



BURIED ALIVE IN ST. PIERRE. 



"3 



or like things at a distance. Time went by 
without leaving any impression, any memory 
of what was passing. Whether it was night, 
day, morning, or evening, I did not know for a 
Ion.; time ; I could not strive to form an idea. 
It was on the morning of May 8th, just after 
the gaol attendant had brought my breakfast, 
that I first felt the heat and first heard the 
sounds that seemed to indicate the building 
had fallen above my head. But what the lapse 
of time had been since then I could not even 
guess. I was either asleep or in a waking 
unconsciousness. 

When I recovered myself my throat and 
tongue were aching with a maddening thirst. 
I searched eagerly in the darkness for what was 
left of the water the gaoler had left. I drank 
it all and lay down, for the hot mud had cooled 
sufficiently to make 
it possible for me to 
he upon it. I went 
to sleep — possibly 
lapsed into uncon- 
sciousness : I do not 
know. I remember 
now that the sounds 
outside had ceased 
and that a death-like 
stillness had ensued 
lor which I could 
not account. There 
was no break in it ; 
it was like the in- 
tense silence of the 
grave. 

I had some break- 
fast left, but I do 
not remember eating 
it. Hunger did not 
seem very keen. But 
my thirst was so in- 
tense, so desperate, 
that it excluded al- 
most every other feeling. Of all 
my experiences I remember that 
awful thirst most vividly. 

I grew weaker. I must have 
been unconscious most of the 
time ; how much of it was spent in sleep, how 
much in stupor, I have no idea. A new dis- 
comfort came upon me — an insane desire for 
a good, hearty smoke of strong tobacco. With 
the thirst, the burns, and that queer, yet natural, 
craving I was almost beside myself during my 
waking moments. I wondered, but dully now, 
that no one approached ; that the silence was 
not broken by the faintest sound which could 
indicate the presence of any people. As to the 
lapse of time, I was guided only by the 




I WAS LYING 



Vol. xii. — 15. 



ight, 



which now reached me again, and which told 
the difference between night and day. 

Darkness and light succeeded each other 
three times. The madness of my thirst was 
growing unendurable. I could scarcely stand. 
Anxiety as to my fate, numbed though my mind 
was, was also beginning to tell on me. 

I was lying awake, or half awake, watching 
rhe growing light, when my heart gave a bound. 
I heard a slight tapping against the cracked and 
crumbling mass of stone that had once been 
the wall of my prison ! 

I listened, fearful that I had made a mistake, 
or that it might be a delusion. No ! I was 
not wrong '. 1 heard the picking sound again 
— and then, unmistakably, human voices. 
Could it be true? Hid I hear my name called 
— and in a voice that sounded familiar, too? 

I answered, but 
my voice was so faint 
that I knew my 
rescuers, if such they 
really were, could 
not hear me. 

The sound out- 
side continued. I 
heard my name 
called again, a little 
more loudly. 1 tried 
to answer again. This 
time it seemed as 
though they must 
have heard me, for 
the sounds increased 
in frequency. Soon 
more light burst in 
on me. 

Three men ap- 
peared at the little 
opening in the ruins 
which they had 
made. I could see 
but little, for the 
bright sunlight 
blinded me. All I 
could tell with cer- 
tainty was that there 
were three men, and 
that one of them looked like a priest. 

Catching a glimpse of the interior of my 
prison tomb, the men seemed to be working 
with redoubled haste. 

" What if we should find him alive ? " I heard 
one say. 

" It would indeed be a wonderful providence 
of God," responded a dignified and sober voice, 
which thrilled me strangely. It sounded so 
sweet, so. comforting, so familiar. 

" Let us hurry, Nelcha," said a strange voice. 



AWAKE, OR HALF AWAKE 
THE GROWING LIGHT." 



WATCHING 






THE N IDE WORLD MAGAZIN1 . 



n be aliv< 1 

M him." 

Surely 

H ould 

d what could kill 

il the man 1 had hit 

1 made some sort of 

plied tin- person 
minutes may be the 

: the picks fell upon 
ame larger, and in 
i some- 
what. In a 
I in the open -faint, almost 
d by the light The 
me : — 
■ 1 be praised you are 

I ther Mary, my good parish 



" Why, you arc worth a million dead men 
vet." said one of lather Mary's companions. 

" A cigarette ! " repeated the other ; and then 
they all shouted again. 

Father Mary and his two assistants, Victor 
Emmanuel Saint-Aude and Elius Nelcha, took 
me through what I supposed must have been 
streets. But 1 did not see anything except tumble- 
down walls. Not a single place bore the guise 
it did when 1 was sent to prison. I was only 
half conscious, for all my desire for a smoke ; 
or perhaps I fell into a stupor and things seemed 
hazy and indistinct. When I was conscious I 
remember asking myself what could have hap- 
pened to change the city so fearfully in the few 
days I had been shut up. 

The sun was high in the heavens. It was 
just about noon on Sunday, May nth. We 
wound slowly along the road to Morne Rouge 
in a carriage. On the way I asked someone 
what was wrong, and for the first time learned 
that Pelee had broken forth and, in a single 




™E AT MORNE ROUGE." 



at Morne Rouge, 
My senses 
first desire 
ongin" f< 

one of the 
ugh. 



paroxysm of fury, had destroyed the city soon 
after the gaoler brought my breakfast the morn- 
ing subsequent to my fight and imprisonment. 
It was then that I first felt the awful heat, smelt 
the sulphur, and had my feet, legs, and body so 
frightfully burned by the hot mud that came 
trickling into my cell. That sulphur smell was 
in my nostrils for a month afterwards. 



BURIKh ALIVE IN ST. PIERRE. 



"5 








vi.^ ^£/ <£«•« 









f*-Ji ^?ta+ 



/9a£ **-a~'i£ 7.'* &£:' 







' ^<S-/*. \S<L~u. 



>wfc^C». /~&C**44y -*4^rr-c* C4* _■ 







V POUR LEGALISATION DE L* SIGNATCUE 
5E H Ji; C,eftL 

LE GOUVEIUCEim DE LA MARTINIOUE 
PAH PEiEGATlON 
LE CHEF DE CABINET 



FACSIMILE OK CERTIFICATE ATTESTING THE FACT OF THE 
AUTHORS INCARCERATION IN THE CITY HAI.L DUNGEON OF 
ST. PIERRE WHILE THE ERUPTION WAS IN PROGRESS. IT 
IS SIGNED BY THE TWO MEN WHO RESCUED HIM, THE 
MAYOR OF PRECHEUR, AND THE GOVERNORS SECRETARY. 



I was taken to the house of two good 
women — Mesdames Jedeon and Marie — at 
Morne Rouge. I learned from them that 
my Julie had perished among the thousands 
in St. Pierre and that I should never see 
her again. I have only the memory of 
her as she crouched in the corner of the 
restaurant after the fight, with her hands 
before her face to shut out the sight of 
the'man lying so still on the floor. I shall 
always feel grief for the blow I gave her. 
And the man: was he dead or alive? I 
do not know, and all those who could 
tell me have perished ; but I do not think 
he died from my blow. 

I spent two months in the house of 
Mesdames Jedeon and Marie. I grew 
better slowly, but it was long before I 
could move without pain. The burns were 
fearful ; I have the scars — broad marks 
where the skin has remained permanently 
discoloured — on mv hands, feet, and legs. 
1 suppose I shall always have them. 

Recovered from my wounds, I went to 



Fort de France and stayed there four months, 
working on the farms around the city. 1 spent 
two months afterwards in the hospital at Fort de 
France with a fever, until, recovering, I went to 
the United States. 

Over a year has passed since Julie was lost to 
me. But whenever, in the new land, some face 
meets my eye that reminds me of my dear one, 
the memory of my lost happiness and my fearful 
experience returns with yet keener suffering. 

TRANSLATION OF CERTIFICATE. 

We, Victor Emmanuel Saint- Aude, agricultui ist, and 
Elius Nelcha, cobbler, l><>th residing in the aforemen- 
tioned Precheur, living since the catastrophe at Fort de 
France, certify that the said Ludger Sylbaris .... 
was incarcerated in the prison of St. Pierre on the 8lh 
of May, 1902, and that he was only released from the 
cell in which he was confined on Sunday, the Ilthol 
May following. 

,o- ,, ( Victor Emmanuel Saint-Aude. 
(Signed) ( Euus NliICHA . 

Fort de France, the 13th February, 1903. 
Witnessed, for legalization, the above signatures of 
Victor Emmanuel Saint-Aude arid Elius Nelcha. 

The Mayor of Precheur. 
(Signed) II. GfeELET. 

Fort de France, the 13th February, 1903. 
Witnessed, for legalization, the signature of Mr. II. 
Grelet. 

The Governor of Martinique. 
As delegate : 
Chief of the Cabinet. 
(Signed) J. BlLI.AUD 
Fort de France, the 141I1 February, 1903. 



FORM FOR AUTHENTICATION CF SIGNATURE 




{stst* 

of the/United Stages at. 
that the signature of. 



Consular Service, VL S. £L, 
Fort -de -France- Martinique* ~Z((£l*j*+fJ*' 7 90 



lartinique 



" a Jf /P heret 



_dp hereby certify 
she foot 



of the paper hereto annexed, is his true and genuine signature, made and 
acknowledged w my presence, and that the said. f%J<-f-*^^t^C u 

~* v's personally known to me. 

In ivir~e*s whereof I have hereunto set my hand and affixed the seal 
of the /^<J-*^<si*jK?a^ic. a t FortdeFrance. Martinique the 

day and year next above written, and of the Independence of the United 
States the / <b / J^Vf* — 

— 1 — r ^— 




o' the VnuaO StiUJ 



CERTIFICATE GIVEN BY THE UNITED STATES CONSUL AT FORT DE FRANCE 

ATTESTING THE AUTHENTICITY OP THE OFFICIAL SIGNATURE AT 

THE FOOT OF THE FIRST CERTIFICATE. 




TfcOM 



BY 

GeoLya/ch 





XCEPT for the short water-journey 

the Channel from < Calais to 

Dover I might have called this 

Fi m Pekin to Piccadilly 

. Kail." I made the journey on 
the very first trains after the starting of 

from Dalney. 

f my trip from Dalney after my 

at being asked by many 

After all, how 

iiing, because 

in any of the text-books of 

rked on none but the 

i had no 

I e land where the city 

arren, I tract of 

•• I want you 

-aid the ' 'zar, pointing 

map, and he 

to build it, whom I had the 

tvernor of I >alney, 

on the ( ompletion of 

"far away," but it 

n one can 
irteen and a half 
a Pekin it is not n 



It is now possible to go right through from Pekin 
to Paris by an express train, doing the long 
journey in about sixteen days. In this article the 
well-known war correspondent describes his trip 
in one of the very first trains of the new service. 



to go to Dalney; one joins the express at 
Tachechou about eight hours after it has started 
on its long journey overland. 

It was a bright, clear morning when we left 
Pekin at seven o'clock on that journey which 
was to end at Paris. The first-class railway- 
carriages were fairly filled, and there was a 
dining-car on the train, the greater part of 
which was made up of open trucks, which 
were simply packed with Chinese, and many 
travelled wherever they could find room— on 
barrels or cases- in the freight-cars. However 
the Chinese may object to the construction of 
railways, they are most certainly good patrons 
of the lines that have been constructed. The 
fares are very low in these open trucks, and the 
passengers are packed literally as close >as they 

n be squeezed into them. 

All the way from Pekin to Tientsin and 
beyond the country gave evidence of the terrible 
drought from which the land was suffering. 
What ought to have been at this time a rich 
tract of country, covered with waving crops, was 
nothing but a dusty desert. Here and there one 
could see faint lines where the crops had just 
shown above the ground, but had not grown 
more than a couple of inches. 



FROM PEKIX TO PARIS BY RAIL. 



117 



The train, although called an express, went 
very slowly and stopped at many stations. Of 
course, there are no refreshment buffets at the 
stations, but their place is taken by a crowd of 
natives offering for sale pears, radishes, Japanese 



Shan Hi Quan is a walled city, one side of 
which forms part of the Great Wall, which 
extends to the sea on the west and can be 
traced right up the mountains towards the 
north-east, its course marked by the towers on 




/* roiu a 1 



CHINESE TRAVFt I.1NT, IV OPEN TRUCKS. 



[PA, to. 



beer, and a variety of evil-looking cakes. Yang- 
tsun was the first place I recognised, from the 
time I traversed this route with the forces that 
relieved the Legations. It was here that the 
Chinese destroyed the iron bridge that spans 
the river and made a stand behind the high 
embankment — practically the only engagement 
of any seriousness during the whole march to 
Pekin. 

Tientsin platform was a veritable pande- 
monium of yelling natives, struggling madly to 
get themselves and their 
belongings on or off the 
train. The country was 
flat and uninteresting in 
the extreme all the way. 
Nearing Shan Hi Quan 
the heat was intense and 
the dust simply awful. For 
the last hour of the jour- 
ney, however, the scenery 
was picturesque and in- 
teresting. We arrived at 
Shan Hi Quan at six 
o'clock, and there was 
time before dinner to have 
a look at the Great Wall 
of China, which here 
comes down to the sea. 
It has a brick facing about 
three feet thick on the 
outer side, and within a 
great bank of sloping 
earth, flattened on the top. From a 



their summits. An excellent little hotel has 
just been opened close to the railway station, 
so that it is no longer necessary to sleep in the 
train as heretofore. 

They don't run the trains at night in China. 
We started again at seven o'clock in the 
mornino;. There was «;reat commotion at one 
of the first stations we came to. Lines of 
Chinese soldiers were drawn up with large flags 
and long trumpets. There were a number of 
mandarins gathered around the w.iiting-rocm, 




NATIVE FAIR CLOSE TO A RAILWAY STATION. 



\Photg. 






THE WIDE WORI h MAGAZINE. 




A GLIMHSK OF THE GREAT W.M.I. Or CHIN/ 



{Photo. 



which presently emerged the Taotai ol 

I with his red button and 

I le was followed by three 

ind highly-painted Chinese ladies 

— who were, carried across the plat- 

l chairs to a reserved coupe. 

train left ami' blowing of trumpets, 

saluting by ducking down. 



is a good 



lotel there, and just behind it the 
Russian (ieneral Condratowitch has his head- 
quarters. There is no apparent sign of the 
Russians evacuating the place. The Taotai, our 
fellow-passenger on the train, came alongside 
the bund in a special steam-launch towing a 
bargeful of his retainers and their belongings, 
but whether the Russians who met him ex- 




similar 
la like i: monstration. 

d the broad 
nth the sedge- 
Chinese junks. There 



plained that they did not wish to trouble 
him bv handing over to him the duties of 
' iovernor or not, the fact remains that he 
departed up-stream, and we heard that he was 
to leave the town on the following day. 



FROM PEKIN TO PARIS BY RAIL. 



119 



Three miles from the 
hotel is the station of 
Inkou, and an hour's jour- 
ney from there brought us 
to Tachitciao, where we 
waited for the arrival of 
the express. This was 
our first glimpse of the 
main line, which is a 
broad-gauge one, five feet 
three inches wide. The 
station-houses are solidly, 
almost massively, built, of 
brick, with limestone fac- 
ings. The platforms are 
one foot high, a compro- 
mise between the English 
and American styles. 
Here one saw what was 
to become so familiar 
during the next few days, 
the solidly - built houses 
and barracks for the forces 
who are supposed to be 
"guarding" the railway 
and the dwellings for a 
large staff of officials. 

Our particular express 
was made up of six cars. 
A luggage- van with sleep- 
ing compartments for the 
servants made up the first 
car. Then came the dining-car, capable of seat- ing partition betw 
ing over forty people at tables with seats for four. opened if desired 




A STKIKING SHOP SIGN IN NEWCHWANG. 

From a Photo. 



our trip, by the way, was 
a jolly-faced, stout old 
Russian lady who, morn- 
ing, noon, or night, was 
never without her cigar- 
ette. The third and fourth 
cars were second - class, 
the fifth a first-class, and 
the sixth a composite car- 
riage of first and second, 
but this was reserved for 
M. Isvolski, the Russian 
Minister to Japan, who 
was returning home with 
his wife and family. 

A wide passage ran 
through the train on the 
right-hand side of the 
cars, on which the doors 
of the compartments 
opened, the cards of the 
occupants being generally 
placed on the outside. 
The second-class carriages 
all accommodated four 
people, two on either side 
transversely. The first- 
class compartments are 
for two people, as a rule, 
with a few for four. By 
a neat arrangement of 
folding doors the interven- 
een two compartments can be 
If the train is not crowded, 




[Photo. 



This was divided across by a swing-door to 
separate the smokers from the non-smokers, 
both male and female. The greatest smoker on 



so that only two persons occupy a second-class 
compartment, they are much better off than in a 
first for two, as there is nearly twice as much 



I • 



1111. WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 



can have a lower 

ving to >p-side." 

\„ . omfort of the two 

scept in the 

ml in the one having 

dished pine ol 

ven than those 

irranged in the 

mpartments and in the passage 

I quantity of luggage ran be 

Everyl g, like suit-cases. 



fitting closely, so that the dust cannot penetrate. 
The cars are well ventilated from below as well 
as from above. Of the heating apparatus I had 
no means of judging, but the arrangement of 
the cars into compartments would allow the 
occupants of each to regulate the temperature 
for themselves. There is a thermometer in 
every compartment as well as right along the 
passages. The beds are comfortable, and fresh 
linen sheets are put on every two days. The 
upper berth folds flat against the wall during 




' 



is, and, in fact, small trunks, 

d away in the carriage. The 

each person to be 

luggage-van is only ten 

large boxes between Dalney 

-t you about five pounds. 

a truly admirable idea to put this tax 

travelling with ridiculously 

ion has been paid to 
truction of the carriages. 

■ 

. ling or gaudy ornamentation, but 
'ong at. There is 

able for writing on in each coin 

i smoothly 

- handle-, and if they swing right 

h. The passages 

hich are kept close 

-havi verlapping floor system 

There 
"hroughout the train, 



the daytime. There are two roomy lavatories 
at the end of each car, with large basins and a 
plentiful supply of hot and cold water and an 
arrangement for giving your head a shower-bath, 
which may be found grateful and comforting if 
one should happen to have been sitting up late 
the night before with convivially - hospitable 
Russian officers. 

It is in the matter of the officials that the 
train contrasts most favourably with the trains 
in America. The chef de train occupies the 
position of a host at a well-managed hotel. 
He takes a personal interest in the comfort and 
welfare of each of his guests, and acts as in- 
terpreter to those who do not understand 
Russian, lb- is an encyclopaedia of informa- 
tion about the route, and is always untiringly 
attentive and obliging, making suggestions on 
his own initiative for your more thorough enjoy- 
ment of the trip. There are two attendants 
on each car, who make the beds, keep the com- 



FROM PERIN TO PARIS BY RAIL. 



121 



partments spotlessly clean, and answer the 
electric bell at any time of the night. Of the 
two in our car, one was a fine specimen of a 
Russian, who from his carriage and bearing 
had evidently gone through more than the 
compulsory period in the army. The other was 
younger, and both were willing, good-natured 
fellows, most anxious to oblige. Although they 
only spoke Russian, they were quick at in- 
terpreting very broken language, or the panto- 
mimic gestures that had so often to take its 
place. 

The line is much better laid and ballasted 
than I expected from what I had heard, and 
it is being still further improved. One can 
write in comfort and shave in safety while the 
train is in motion. When you wash the water 
does not go swishing over the top of the basin, 
and you don't cannon off the sides of the 
corridors when going through the train or down 
the passages between the cars. Among the leu- 
things that might have been arranged better are 
the windows. 
They might well 
have been larger, 
both in the com- 
partments and 
corridors. There 
is only one win- * 
dow in each com- 
partment, and this 
is not large enough 
to give an ex- 
tended view un- 
less one is close 
up to the glass. 
The carriages are 
built of steel, 
heavier and ap- 
parently stronger 
than American 
cars of equal size, 
but it seems a 
great pity that 
they have not 
the bright effect 
that larger win- 
dows would give From a] 

them. 

During a journey of nearly a week the 
restaurant department becomes naturally an 
important feature, and one sits down to the first 
meal with a considerable amount of interested 
curiosity. '1 here is nothing to cause appre- 
hension, however, on this line. The food was 
most excellent and extremely well cooked. We 
had a large number of passengers on our train. 
and this being hitherto quite unusual was given 
as an excuse for the considerable slowness there 

Vol. xii.-1S. 



was in the service. Breakfast is a la carte. 
The bread and fresh butter were very good, and 
all the foreigners seemed to take kindly to the 
Russian tea, served in glasses with lemon and 
sugar. The principal meal of the day was 
any time between one and five. It consisted 
of four courses : soup — the Russian borsch, 'with 
vegetables and large slices of meat, which to a 
person of small appetite would suffice for a meal 
in itself — then two courses of meat, beef-steak 
being usually one, and some sort of fowl or 
cutlets, and sweets or ices with tea or coffee. 
One rouble was all they charged for this meal. 

I was quite astonished with the richness of 
Manchuria. During the first couple of days, as 
far as the eye could reach on either side of the 
railway, every acre of land seemed to be tilled. 
Harbine, which is reached the second day of 
the journey, is a city that has been built by the 
Russians, and is already a place of considerable 
importance. Since 1900 four large American 
roller mills have been erected there. There is 




IIAHBIXK, THE Nl-W TOWN I'.Ull T BY TIIIC RUSSIANS. 



[Photo. 



practically an unlimited supply of wheat to be 
obtained from the country round at a very low 
price, and an immense demand for flour, so it 
was not surprising to learn that the proprietors 
of one of the mills made sufficient profit in the 
first eighteen months to pay for the cost of its 
erection. 

There is an interesting piece of railway travel- 
ling in crossing the Kilgran Mountains, where, 
with an engine before and behind, the train 






llli: WIDE WOKl.li M At ".A/INK. 



summit A tunnel a mile and 

■n at 

with the development 
and thai "i Manchuria is a white 

us, bracing 
air that stimulates and invigoral 

than in wheat 
n.ula : then- is not a very 

verely as the 

■ 1 lead one to expect This 

• I 'ranee and ( lermany 

will almost immediately become a 



here was ninety -four roubles first-class, fifty- 
seven roubles and fifty kopecks second ; and 
from there to Moscow it is a hundred and fifty- 
six roubles first-class and one hundred and 
eight second. 

The Customs examination by the courteous 
Russians was a purely formal affair. Our 
tickets were handed over to the chef detrain, and 
we had no more trouble with them until we 
reached our destination. After crossing into 
Siberia the country traversed reminds one 
forcibly of the South African veldt, save that the 
grass appeared to me to be closer and more 
luxuriant. Here and there immense herds of 




i T OF DALNEY. 



[Photo. 



i it only requires a very 

■ m the pr ,n the 

impetition of Manchurian 

felt in the markets of the Pacifii ports. 

ria and Siberia, how< 

are 

d every- 

and in the imn est land 

iw-mill, all the timber 

on Saturday night 
tion on Wednesday 

lamination 
. ticket ' i k»_-n. 

k right thi >ug1 

P to 



rattle were to be seen, tended by types of the 
nomad aborigines on shaggy little Mongolian 
ponies. 

A little child who had been looking through 
the window for some time in silence turned to 
her mother and said, " What a great, big country 
this is, mother! She voiced exactly the im- 
pression that is made on everyone travelling 
through it. There is something almost awe- 
inspiring in the bigness of it. After spending 
the whole day going through undulating prairie- 
land without a solitary tree visible to the 
ids of the far-off horizon, we would wake in 
the morning to find ourselves going through a 
i covered with magnificent primeval 
forest This variety in the character of the 



FROM PEKIN TO PARIS BY RAIL. 



123 




A TRAIN GOING ON BOARD THE ICE-BREAKING STEAMER — SHE CAN CARRV THREE WHOLE TRAINS 

From a\ at a time. \ Photo. 



country takes away from the monotony of the 
journey. The train proceeds leisurely, averaging 
a little over twenty-one miles an hour, and 
makes frequent stops. Sometimes it waits as 
long as three-quarters of an hour, which gives 
one time for a short walk and a glimpse of the 
towns or villages on the way. In the crowds of 
inhabitants, whose curiosity brings them to the 
stations, one finds all sorts of strange types. 
The Chinese in Manchuria merge in racial 
gradations into those of Eastern Siberia, and one 
observes the gra- 
dual change in 
costume until, as 
one proceeds 
westward, every- 
thing becomes 
purely Russian. 

A most inter- 
esting break in 
the journey is the 
crossing of Lake 
Baikal in the 
great ice - break- 
ing steamer. A 
line is in course 
of construction 
which will go 
round the south- 
ern end of the 
lake, but it will 
be more than a 
yeai before this 



On the trip we made in the ice-breaker she 
carried three whole trains across and the 
journey took exactly four hours. Late 
though it was in the season, the ice for a 
couple of miles from the shore on the east side 
was about two feet thick. There is a propeller 
beneath the bow which sucks away the water, 
and the great flat bow crashes down on the 
surface of the ice with a loud noise. Only 
four weeks before we were there the crossing 
had to be made on sleighs. The scenery 



IS completed. Frvma] 




LAKE BAIKAL AFTER THE PASSAGE OF THE ICE-BREAKER. 



\Photo. 



124 



NIK WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 



• the mountains surrounding the lake is 

fin< fhe Eastei I Railwa) 

Baikal, and after 

the lake one finds waiting either the 

n Imperial expn ain oi the ( !om- 



the settlers arc just ordinary goods waggons, 
which, for military purposes, bear the significant 
legend, "To carry forty men or eight horses." 
In the centre of each was a stove with a chimney 
through the middle of the roof, and at each end 




i 



A Kl'SslAN FUNERAL AT IRKUTSK. 



{Photo. 



lie Internationale des Wagons-Lits, whirl) 
ght through without change to Moscow. 
tremely picturesque journey of two 
rig the left bank of the Angara we 
Irkutsk, the administrative capital of 
This was one of the places at which I 
Ice my journey, and it well repays a visit. 
lb" a good insight into the 

empire-building which is in progress throughout 
thi- mntry. It is a hand- 

town, half encircled by a 
broad river which sweeps around 
it. There are fine 

chur whose and 

cupolas, with their green t 

tal dis- 
to its ap] 

with 
■ long 
difficult to iin 
in the 
ria. 

■' saw 

f that 

irds along the 
rom 1 into 

I rain after train full 
daily. 



were three broad shelves, the top one for luggage 
and the other two capable ot holding five or six 
people lying side by side. Physically, these 
emigrants are magnificent specimens of humanity, 
deep chested, strong, and healthy. As a rule they 
were well clothed, the men with fur caps and 
high top-boots and the women in thick woollen 
gowns with bright handkerchiefs tied over their 
heads. Hot water is supplied at all the stations, 




EMIGRANTS AT A WAYSIDE STATION. 



[ Photo. 






FROM PEKIN' TO PARIS BY RAIL 



125 



and there are booths and stalls alongside the 
principal ones, where excellent food is to be 
obtained at very low prices. Ten eggs can 
be bought for twopence halfpenny. Milk, 
huge loaves of bread, and those enormous 
sausages so dear to the Russians seemed to be 
the principal viands. The paternal Government 
of Russia treats the emigrants very much like 
children. Doctors are provided at stations 
along the route, and when they arrive near their 
destination carts are at hand to convey them 



the promised land of Siberia. The villages and 
houses of the Siberian peasantry were far more 
comfortable-looking, and I was not surprised to 
hear that the standard of comfort is much higher 
there than in Russia. 

For one travelling with limited time at his 
disposal Moscow is better worth lingering at 
than St. Petersburg. St Petersburg is European ; 
Moscow is purely and thoroughly Russian. 
The journey from Moscow to Paris takes two 
days and a half, which makes the total journey 




From a\ 



A BATCH OF EXILES FOR SIBERIA. 



{Photo. 



to the ground assigned them. For the first 
three years they are exempt from all taxation, 
for the following three they are only required to 
pay half, and, in addition, they are given free 
timber for the erection of their houses and can 
obtain agricultural implements from the Govern- 
ment on a system of easy payments. 

On the journey I passed three trains carrying 
prisoners. There were iron* bars across the 
windows and soldiers as guards at each end of 
the carriages. One^of them was laden with 
political prisoners, &nd some refined and in- 
tellectual faces looked out from between the 
bars. 

Coming into European Russia was a rapid 
progress into summer. The harvest, which in 
Siberia was only just showing above the ground, 
was here waving in rich luxuriance. The mean 
houses and squalor of most of the Russian 
villages afforded explanation for the cheerfulness 
and light-hearted spirit of these emigrants to 



from Pekin to Paris seventeen days. The cost 
first-class all the way is just thirty-nine pounds, 
and twenty-seven second-class. This makes 
it to my mind the cheapest railway journey 
in the world. It is necessary to go first-class 
from Pekin to Newchwang, but from there to 
Moscow second-class is every bit as comfortable. 
With the experience of not a little railway 
travelling (I have been five times across the 
American continent by different lines) I have no 
hesitation in saying that I consider this journey 
by the Trans-Siberian the most comfortable 
long-distance railway journey I know. It is 
obvious what an effect it will have in making 
the most interesting places in the East comfort- 
ably accessible to travellers. A new service 
will be in operation next year between Dalney 
and Japan which will reduce the journey from 
Dalney to Tokio to only forty-eight hours, so 
that it will be possible to go from London to 
the capital of Japan in eighteen and a half days. 



A Voyage Down a Burning Flume. 

l'.\ Harris I". Silverton, of Broken Hill, New South Wales. 

A thrill:- -of-the-way experience. Cut off by a forest fire, the author and his friends had no 

pen to them than a trip down a water-flume which carried timber to the mines. 
The Hume itself caught fire, and the party only made the terrible journey just in time. 




Ill ll ! N Mill ride down a burn 
water-flume through a raging 
fire was not one of the things 
t coi templated wh< n I set out on a 
irowie, away in the un 
if Central New South Wales, 
i if 1 ever make this lonely 
my permanent place ol residence— 
I trust 1 shall never haw- 
such a trip again. 
5 how it happened. My chum, Mr. 
|. I . u will known Australian hush 

rontn nd I had arranged to visit 

I pal Mines, which arc owned by 
I . 1. Mars, one of the wealthiest of the 
nining magnati s. 

d the mines I noticed that a 

[uantity of timber was used about the 

nd. not having seen any suitable wood 

. I asked whence it came. Mr. 

Id me that he had some large timber 

out fifteen miles away, and when I 

I how they got the timber to the mines 

I v.. d that it all came down a flume. 




THE AUTHOR, MR. HARRIS l. SILVERTON, OF BROKEN HILL, 
NEW SOUTH WALES. 

From a Photo, by Friihling Studio, Adelaide. 




THE PLUMB CARRIED TIMBER FROM THE FORFST TO 

[Photo. 



or water-race, as 
it was almost 
impossible to 
construct a road 
through such 
country. 

That was the 
beginning of my 
connection with 
the flume. Un- 
doubtedly it is a 
wonderful piece 
of engineering. 
It is built upon 
trestles and 
stringers, and 
the incline is so 
pronounced that 
there is little 
possibility of the 
logs jamming. 
The trestlework 
is very substan- 
tial, and would 
easily carry a 



A VOYAGE DOWN A BURNING FLUME. 



127 



narrow-gauge railway. The flume runs over 
hills, through valley's, and around mountains, 
and is in places seventy feet high. The highest 
point above the plain is three thousand six 
hundred feet. As the crow 

flies the flume is seven 

miles in length ; the twists 
and turns make up the 
other eight miles of its 
course. The fall, I was 
told, is two thousand feet 
in the fifteen miles, and the 
sharpest fall is three feet 
m six. The water is sup- 
plied by two reservoirs, and 
the whole flume was built 
in ten weeks, two hundred 
men being employed on it. 
In its construction two 
million feet of lumber was 
used and no less than 
twenty-eight tons of nails. 
With all its appurtenances 
the flume cost twenty thou- 
sand pounds. These details, with the accom- 
panying photographs, will perhaps enable the 
reader to understand my story better. 

A proposal from Mr. Mars that we should visit 
the source of this flume metwith a ready response, 
and, horses being sup- 
plied, we found ourselves, 
after a circuitous ride of 
three hours over rough 
ground, well within the 
timber "limits." After 
observing the method of 
cutting and launching the 
timber on its journey down 
the chute, we sat down to 
a typical Australian bush 
dinner, after which we 
started making our fare- 
wells, preparatory to the 
return journey to the mines. 

Suddenly, however, our 
attention was arrested by 
the peculiar density and 
fog-like appearance of the 
atmosphere a few miles 
away. Instantly the camp 
was in a commotion, for the 
experienced eyes of the 
timber-cutters detected that 
most dreaded of Australian 
scourges — a bush fire ! 

My friend and I wanted to return immedi- 
ately, but Mr. Mars laughed derisively, telling 
us that the fire in its onward course would pass 
directly over the track whicli we must traverse, 




MR. \V. J. DOGERTY, THE WELL - KNOWN 

AUSTRALIAN BUSH MAIL-CONTRACTOR. 

From a Photo. 




MR. F. J. MARS, THE OWNER OF THE OI'AL 

From a] mines. [Photo. 



and, in consequence, our lives would be 
jeopardized. 

Here was a predicament, and no mistake ! 
It was absolutely necessary that we should 

return, in order to catch 
the mail coach, which only 
passed the district bi- 
weekly ; moreover, the pro- 
spects of making a pro- 
longed stay in such an in- 
hospitable region were by 
no means alluring. 

After an anxious consul- 
tation we at length per- 
suaded Mr. Mars, much 
against his will, to make 
a dash for home, trusting 
to get through the belt of 
timber before the flames 
reached the road. Our 
inexperience and stubborn- 
ness almost cost us our 
lives. 

Mounting our horses, we 
started off at a hard gallop, and soon felt the 
effects of the approaching fire. The atmosphere 
was hot and oppressive, the air was filled with 
smoke, and away behind and on either side 
sounded an ominous crackling and a subdued 

roaring as the flames ate 
their way onwards. The 
horses became restive, birds 
flew wildly by, and reptiles 
could be seen scurrying to 
the rocky headlands for 
shelter. 

After galloping a few 
miles at our best pace I saw 
that our self-imposed task 
was hopeless ; the fire was 
steadily outflanking us and 
gaining upon us in its in- 
exorable march across the 
forest. To proceed meant 
courting certain death. 
Mars evidently thought the 
same, for he drew rein, 
exclaiming that to proceed 
farther by road was hopeless. 
We were now within a 
short distance of the first 
of the water-wheel reservoirs 
that provide the flume with 
water ; and our leader in- 
formed us that our only 
chance of escape— and that a desperate one — 
was to reach the reservoir and thence travel 
to the- mines by water, via the flume. The 
proposal did not convey very much to us, but 



: in 



WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 







| I . us. 



trough than anything else. 
It tapered to a point at the 
front, but was more or less 
open at the back. 

As quickly as possible this 
odd craft was placed in the 
flume, kept stationary in the 
rushing torrent by a stout 
rope. 1 noticed that its 
edges, or sides, just fitted the 
Hume. This boat, it appeared, 
was utilized by the timber- 
men to carry tools, such as 
crowbars, hammers, etc., to 
repair the flume or to dis- 
lodge jammed logs, the men 
walking on a footboard along- 
side the water and holding 
the boat back with a rope 

Into this weird vessel Mars 
now told me to jump. 
Human beings, not tools, 
were going to make the trip 
down the flume this time, 
with no steadying rope be 
hind to check the mad pace 
of the boat ! 

I looked at the flume. 
( )wing to the heavy gradient 
the water was dashing down 
at a tremendous pace, and 
I do not mind admitting 
that my heart failed me. 
Behind us was that sea of 



our 
- and I f for 

r. 

hed the 
Hid I 

I our 

■ 

ir our 
liber- 

■ 

tim- 
'd do 
r them. 
i 

iume, 

ich 

g 




THE V. ATEK-tt'HEEL RESERVOIRS WHICH Bl 



[Photo. 



A VOYAGE DOWN A BURNING FLUME. 



i 20 



fire, advancing to engulf us ; and the prospect 
in front seemed only death in another form. 

To reassure us Mars himself stepped into the 
boat, and then my courage returned. If a man 
worth a million was prepared to risk his life, I 
thought I could afford to risk my less valuable 
self. So Dogerty and I got in, the rope was 
cast off, and with a wild rush we were off. 

The terrors of that awful ride will never be 
effaced from the memory of at least one of 
the party. At the start we went at the rate 
of about twenty miles an hour, borne along 
like a cork on the surface of the water. At 
the heaviest grades the water came in so 
furiously in front that it was impossible to see 
where we were going or what was ahead of 
us ; hut when the grade was light and we 
travelled more slowly the view over the forests 
and hills was delightful, although at times awe- 
inspiring. When the showers of 
spray allowed me to look around 
I could see the trestlework extend- 
ing ahead of us for miles, so 
small and narrow that I can only 
compare it to a slender cord 
winding in and out among the 
hills. And all the time, high in 
the air, we were sliding along at 
a terrific rate. 

The minutes seemed hours as 
we sped on, and the overpower- 
ing feeling caused by the smoke 
from the burning forest, with its 
green leaves and resinous woods, 
made us dizzy and faint. It was 
evident that the fire was now ver^ 
near us. 

It seemed hours before we 
reached the most dangerous part 
of the flume, where, Mars in- 
formed us, the flume had nearly 
forty-five degrees of inclination ! 
It was here, if anywhere, that 
the fire would cut us off. The 
suspense as we approached it was 
terrible. The flames and smoke 
seemed all around us, licking at 
the woodwork and eddying over 
the swirling water as we dashed 
onwards, apparently to our doom. 

It was a race for life — run 
under conditions which have 
surely never been duplicated. 
Should we be enabled to pass this 
dreaded spot ere the flames en- 
gulfed the flume, or should we 
rush into a vortex of fire, smoke, 
and steam where death would 
;ome swift and awful ? 

Vol. xii.— 17. 



How our flying boat kept the track is more 
than I know. During the easy grades I had 
decided to try and form some idea of the speed 
we were travelling at, but when the danger 
came so close I had other things to think about. 
I huddled close to Mars and looked towards 
the blazing hills. Everything was hazy, the heat 
insufferable, and the smoke choking. Every 
object I rested my eyes on was gone before I 
could plainly discern what it was. 

The roar of the flames was getting nearer 
every second, and already red-hot ashes and 
burning leaves were dropping all around us. 
Mountains passed like visions and shadows, 
and it was with difficulty we could draw breath, 
huddled there in the boat, clutching it 
desperately, every now and then blinded and 
drenched with showers of spray. 

Another minute and we had reached the 




A NIGHTMARE OF FIKE AND SMOKE AN'D HORMlR. 






THE WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 




<)F our boat moke dead than alive. 



We 

sur- 
fire— 

■ 

g furi- 

i 

Jt to 

■ 




horror — and we were through 
the seething mass and the 
blazing area left behind. 

Not much more remains 
to be said. We reached the 
end of the flume in safety, 
to the vast wonderment of 
the timbermen. We were 
thoroughly drenched, and 
were helped out of our boat 
more dead than alive. 

We had made that awful 
journey in less time than an 
ordinary railway train, and 
part of the distance — when 
we shot through the fire at 
the place where the flume 
was burning — we went faster, 
I believe, than a railway train 
ever went. The trip occu- 
pied approximately twenty 
minutes. It seemed like 
twenty centuries ! 

Mars declared he wouldn't 
make the journey again for 
the whole of Eurowie ; and 
Dogerty said he would never 
again place himself on an 
equality with lumber. As for 
me, I was too limp to say any- 
thing. Next morning we 
learnt that the fire had badly 
burnt a section of the trestle- 
work, which would have to 
be replaced, be- 
sides utterly des- 
troying a valuable 
timber "limit." 
A heavy down- 
fall of rain dur- 
ing the night, 
however, had for- 
tunately retarded 
its further pro- 



gress. 



Neither Mars 
nor Dogerty was 
able to leave 
his bed, whilst 
I had only suffi- 
cient strength 
to say that I 
had had enough 
of flumes to last 
me to my dying 
day. And 
that statement 
I repeat. 






THE FINISH OF THE I 




Describing how a dispute between second-year students and " Freshmen " at the University 

of Pennsylvania led to the establishment of a remarkable annual contest known as " The 

Battle of the Bowl." The "battle," which is a very realistic and exciting affair, is well 

illustrated in the photographs which accompany the article. 




HAT brain 
developed 
established 
educational 



and brawn should be 

synchronously is an 

tenet in American 

circles. The faculty 



of most institutes of learning in the 
United States take more than a casual interest 
in the athletic department of the college. So 
long as athletics do not clash with studies they 
have the warm approval of the educational 
authorities. A wide latitude is allowed American 
University students in the matter of inter-class 
contests, and so long as the public peace is not 
disturbed little attention is paid to the scrim- 
mages, impromptu hand-to-hand conflicts, and 
dormitory forays that are as common a feature 
of college life in the United States as duels 
among students in Germany. 

But there is one annual event, peculiar to the 
University of Pennsylvania and known as "The 
Battle of the Bowl," that narrowly escaped 
official interdiction this year because of the 
unusually ferocious nature of the combat, and 
the fact that a college boy, the son of a pro- 
minent clergyman of Philadelphia, was . left 
senseless when the battle ended and hovered 
between life and death for many days. 

The Battle of the Bowl has come to be 
regarded as one of the most important contests 
of Pennsylvania University. The story of its 
origin is interesting as showing upon what very 
small incidents great events turn in the life of 
the college boy. 

One hot day, several summers ago, a group of 



second-year men were kicking their heels in the 
grounds of the University of Pennsylvania, when 
a very young-looking Freshman, passing oppor- 
tunely, aroused their dormant interest in matters 
extraneous. A shower of chaff was directed at 
the youngster as he passed on his innocent way. 
Finding the subject a good means of diversion 
in warm weather, the Sophomores decided to 
follow up the joke. An enormous bowl was 
obtained and filled with food of the kind 
usually given to infants, and with the largest 
spoon to be found on such short notice the 
luckless Freshman was forced to swallow a 
liberal allowance of the mess. 

The news that the Sophomores were perse- 
cuting a member of their honourable body 
speedily reached the ears of the Freshmen, 
and vengeful hosts descended on the scene of 
the feeding operation. A hot fight ensued, 
every availal ile man on both sides being brought 
up to swell the opposing ranks. When the 
excitement had calmed down it was expected 
that the affair would prove nothing more than 
an ordinary college scuffle, to be heard of no 
more. Some of the Sophomores, however, had 
been roughly handled by the swarm of Freshmen, 
and they were by no means willing to allow the 
matter to rest. 

Another Freshman was caught the next day 
and forced to swallow infants' food from a 
bowl. Spoons appeared from everywhere as if 
by magic, and the college precincts were filled 
with struggling groups centralizing around 



mi; WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 




. 



READY FOB TIP-: FRAY. 



[Peirce & Jones. 



p quieting matters by ordi- 

students called a meeting 

the bowl fight an annual 

c ilar rules drawn up for the contest. 

1 ttle of the Bowl has been 

ir at the University of Penn- 

i in the following way :— 



The .Sophomores and Freshmen of the college 
are drawn up on opposite sides of a field 
attached to the college grounds. In possession 
of the second-year men is a large bowl, orna- 
mented with the crest of the college and the 
insignia of the different classes. The Freshmen 
are then told to bring to the centre of the field 




/ - 



THE BEGINNING OP THE BATTLE. 



[Peirce &> Jones. 



THE BATTLE OF THE BOWL. 



133 




SOPHOMORES AND FRESHMEN WATCHING THE STRUGGLE 

from a Photo, hy Peirce &* 

the man whom they have selected for the 
position of " bovvlman." The identity of this 
individual is kept a strict secret until the 
last moment, as otherwise the Sophomores 
would kidnap him --he being always the 
strongest Freshman — and thus force the juniors 
to bring forward an inferior article. 

When the bowl man has been brought to the 
front i.he referee blows his whistle and the tight 
begins. During the first half it is the object of 



the Sophomores 
to touch the bowl- 
m a 1 1 with the 
bowl before he 
can escape over 
the fence behind 
them. If the 
bowl man scales 
the fence before 
he can be touched 
the Freshmen win 
the half. This year 
the Freshmen 
formed a hollow 
square around 
their bowlman 
and, successfully 
resisting the 
efforts of the 
Sophomores to 
break through, 
rushed their 
champion over 
the fence in a 
minute and a half 
after the battle 
began. 

The second 
half is a different 
affair to the first. In this half the bowl is placed 
in the centre of the crowd of Sophomores and 
Freshmen, and when the signal is given both 
sides are at liberty to rage around it as they 
please for ten minutes. At the end of that time 
the whistle is blown again and the referee counts 
the number of hands holding to the bowl. 
According as the owners of the hands are 
Freshmen or Sophomores the palm of victory 
goes. This year the Freshmen won this half also. 



FROM THE COLLEGE BUILDINGS. 

Jones. 




From a PI Otff. M FRESHMEN ENDEAVOURING TO RUSH THEIR " BOWLMAN " THROUGH THE ENEMY S RANK 



Peirce •."-' fona 






THE Wini: WORLD MACAZIXI 





Frou i - to. by Pcirce &* Jones. 

■\1 is hardly a sight for 
I public, for the hoys go into the 
; .ill superfluous garments, and 
! it with considerably less 
:it in. Nevertheless, there are 
rowned 
seen 
'v from 
:lege 
>ture 
• 

and 

■ 

ind the 

uen 




strongest men to 
hold on to that 
trophy while the 
rest concentrated 
their attention on 
cutting out isola- 
ted Sophomores 
from the ruck and 
holding them 
prisoners until 
the fight was over. 
Two or three 
Freshmen would 
grab a " Soph," 
drag him bodily, 
kicking and 
squirming, to the 
outside of the 
ring, and there 
sit on him while 
the battle progres- 
sed. With their 
strongest chain 
pions thus taken 
from the fight the 
Sophomores were 
unable to- make 
headway against 
the rushes of 
the Freshmen, 
and superior 



numbers ultimately won the day. 

After the fight the dusty and perspiring con- 
querors paraded with the bowl around the 
college grounds, singing songs of victory and 
triumph. 




From a Plioto. by] 



THE BOWL AND ITS GUARDIANS. 



[Fcirce & Jones. 



Our Trek into Griqualand. 



By Mrs. Fred Maturin. 



I. 



The authoress undertook a long and arduous trek into Griqualand in a Cape-cart in order to 
witness something of the " repatriation " of the Boers. She describes her adventures in a bright 
and amusing fashion, and throws some interesting side-lights on the state of affairs now prevailing 

in the new Colonies. 



rifJRVl 




Auckland Valley, Johannesburg. 
E were to have started last night for 
our trek into Griqualand, instead of 
which I am lying on my bed with a 
swollen ankle and the rest of me 
a mass of bruises, and it is all the 
fault of Spotty. 

Special carriages were secured in the train 
which was to take us as far as Klerksdorp, and 
Spotty was enjoined to fetch me from here 
before dark. But whatever Spotty undertakes 
goes wrong. He is the essence of laziness, and 
he never started from Johannesburg till after 
dark ; managed, of course, to secure jibbing 
horses ; and the consequence was we lost our 
train by four solid hours, spending that time 
out on the pitch-dark veldt between here and 
Johannesburg, in imminent peril of our lives, 
having completely lost the road and got out on 
to that part of the veldt where chasms and holes 
and nasty places abound. 

One minute our carriage was being galloped 
up a rocky kopje ; the next we went crash into 
a disused gold claim ; then into a barbed-wire 
fence Then a yell from the Kaffir driver, " Get 
off quick, missis," just as a precipice yawned 
behind our carriage-wheels. 

Spotty, knowing that relays of mules were 
waiting for us all along the veldt beyond 
Klerksdorp,. and that " Me-Charlie " (Captain 

E ) would be rightly furious with him for 

his carelessness, perspired freely and slashed at 
the horses, imploring me to "sit tight." 

This is Spotty all over. He only wanted to 
save himself from blame and catch that train. 
When my head and limbs felt as if I had 
been beaten, and my heavy portmanteau had 
described a circle in the air and descended 
upon my feet and shoulders three times, I lost 
my temper and refused to go on, train or no 
train. It took another two hours to induce the 
ponies to return to my house — it was now 
midnight— and was only then accomplished by 
taking them out of the shafts and dragging 
them and the carriage along separately. 

We roused N , my little maid, from her 



slumbers, and Spotty straightway fainted — from 

fear of Captain E 's wrath, I suppose — on to 

a Boer settle in the stoep, upon which N at 

night spreads all the stick-fast fly-papers we 
have used during the day. On to six of these 
(one mass of buzzing flies and wasps) Spotty 
sank with low moans, which changed into loud 
ones as a score of wasps straightway resented 
this fresh outrage in a very practical manner, 
while thousands of flies, glued between the 
stick-fast and the seat of Spotty's trousers, buzzed 
piteously in a dismal chorus. 

It was useless to turn him on to his face and 
try to remove the fly-papers. We tried, but he 
feebly implored us to stop and " leave them on," 
which it seemed more discreet to do. 

Meanwhile, a large party of friends having 
collected at Johannesburg Station to see us off, 
consternation prevailed when K — ■ — (who had, 
unknown to me, followed our carriage on his 
bicycle, as a surprise, taking the road we had 
gone) gave it as his opinion that we had lost the 
track and been killed. 

A search-party was organized, headed by 
" Me-Charlie " (who is a superintendent of 
repatriation), fairly dancing with rage at the 
vision of his mules and drivers all along the 
veldt, for days perhaps, foodless and waterless, 
and vowing vengeance on that " infernal little 
Spotty." 

No dead bodies or debris being found, the 
search-party arrived at my cottage about 3 a.m. 

Spotty put on an air of great bravado, and 

Captain E straightway went for him. 

Spotty, his trousers plastered with fly-papers, 
stood in a dignified attitude of injured virtue, 
while Captain E called him the most insult- 
ing names he could think of, 

Some of the search-party took Captain 

E 's part, some Spotty's, but, anyhow, it 

ended in a general row. 

I got rid of them all, and retired to bed 
aching, and here I am. And we start again 

to-night, Captain E having gone on this 

morning to re-arrange the mules, and my escort 
as far as Klerksdorp is to be Spotty ! It will 






II II WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 



urg and its market 
riqualand. 

off ! 1 feel 
taken for a honey- 
ni y partner. This 

iss the veldt 
{ II course, 

our carriage, 
f and said it was 

S| tty, rubbing his hands 
! Johannes- 
waving handken hii fs 
and smiling, 
a honeymoon pair ! " 



"Certainly, please do!" I tried to say, but 
Spottv was loo t|iiick for me. 

" 1 think I told you this carriage was 

■VYd.].'' 

" Don't see any signs of it, stranger. Anyhow, 
I've got to come in." 

Then, with another most objectionable wink, 
as he arranged his things for the night, "Can't 
be done, me boy-train too full. Can't be done 
at any price ! " 

" Mr. P ," said I to Spotty, furious, 

"why should this gentleman not come in herd? 
For my part, I told you, to start with, I pre- 
ferred to find a ladies' compartment." 

But the American was not so easily gul'eJ — 
or so he thought. 

" Don't distress yourself, my dear lady. No 




" 



■■jr+~* 







* 




TO DISTL'KI) YOU, MISTER. 



teful idea ! I 
osyllables 
hing his moustache 
■ and 

upwards, now his 

'i again 
relief. 

with a wink, 

• and I've got to 

in ':.• • 



need to call him Mr. P or Mr. Anything. 

Call him the usual thing and don't mind me. 
Don't break his heart because of me. I don't 
go farther than Potchefstroom." 

I could have murdered both the Yankee and 
Spotty. I turned my back on both. 

Outspanned on the Veldt. 
We had breakfast at Klerksdorp with the 
triation officers in their cool huts on the 
veldt, with Klerksdorp simmering half a mile 



OUR TREK INTO GRI QUA LAND. 



137 



away across the sunlit plain. I had a bath and 
did my hair, and right glad was I that my tete- 
a-tete with Spotty was at an end, for "Me- 
Charlie" is now with us. 

Our Cape-cart was brought up, and all our 
luggage tied on to it behind. What a ram- 
shackle-looking thing to travel all those hundreds 
of miles in ! 

" Is it safe ? " I inquired, dubiously ; 
"mightn't the wheels come off?" eyeing the 
one opposite me, which had a limp, tipsy- 
looking air, while the harness was tied in a 
dozen places with tape and string. 

'' Oh, that's nothing for a Cape-cart, if it 
does, Mrs. Maturin. They often come off. 
We take plenty of odd straps, bits of rope, and 
chain, for repairs in case of accidents." 

" But doesn't it 
hurt if the wheel 
comes off? " 

" Hurt the cart ? 
Oh, dear, no ! " 

"No! Doesn't it 
hurt the people inside 
if the wheel comes 
off?" 

" Oh, if you want 
to trek in Africa you 
must Lret used to 
that ! That's nothing! 
You're lucky if that's 
all that happens. Are 
you ready to get in ? 
You ought to be 
starting; if you don't 
reach Riet font tin 
before dark it won't 
be pleasant, for 
there's nowhere else 
to sleep." 

" How many miles is it ? " 

"About seventy-five. You change mules 
first at Leuwkop.'' 

"Are there any shops anywhere about here? " 
said I, gazing at the veldt around, for civilization 
and the railway end here. 

"You surely don't want to start shopping?" 
exclaimed Captain E , with true male dismay. 

" Tve forgotten all my stockings" I was forced 
to reply, " and we are going into the desert. 
Please mayn't I buy some ?" 

What man could resist such an appeal ? 

We climbed into the Cape-catt, while the 
long team of mules were yelled at by the Kaffir 
boy who accompanied us. Then we bade 
farewell to our kind hosts, and with a jerk and a 
crash which sent my head flying against the top 
of the cart, away we flew. 

It was a truly exquisite morning and we could 

Vol. xii.— 18. 




THE CAPE-CAKT IN V HICH THE AlH 

From 



see forty miles whichever way we looked. It 
was early, so the air sparkled like diamonds 
and was delightfully cool. We halted a few 
minutes outside a general store on the edge of 
the township, and here I descended and 
invested in stockings and a Boer sun-bonnet, 
which I donned instead of my African sailoi 
hat. Then, with fresh yells and imprecation; 
from the Kaffir, we started in earnest at a hare 
gallop, oblivious of ruts, holes, and dongas ! 

Crash we went over and through everything 
— away, away, across the great trackless veldt. 

Klerksdorp grew smaller and smaller, till at 
last it became only a smudge on the sky-line, 
and we were alone ! As much alone as any shir 
on the vast ocean ! 

There is something marvellously fascinating 

about the veldt. You 
gaze around and 
draw in your breath. 
Far as you can see 
around there is not a 
speck ! Not a dwell- 
ing ! Not a tree or a 
shrub ! The cry of 
an eagle somewhere 
in the blue above, 
the scuttle of a grey 
meercat across the 
track — that is all. 
On and on you go. 
You get tired of 
talking. It is enough 
to look. Nothing to 
see, and yet so much ! 
Of what importance 
becomes every speck 
you do see ! A man 
on the sky-line! His 
very limbs and pose 
stand out, silhouetted black against the everlast- 
ing blue. He is carrying something on his head. 
How far is he off ? Oh, quite ten miles! Two 
hours' hard galloping before we reach him. 

Ah ! a ruined Boer farm ; the first we have 
seen. Its blackened arches stand as if toppling 
far away on the edge of the world, or as if a 
child were building bricks on the rim of a vast 
flat table. It has no roof. Blue heaven 
smiling through windows to which happy 
children once pressed little faces, but where 
rain and wind, sun and storm, can now riot 
through unchecked. Blue heaven to be seen 
through the desolate doorways, where friendly- 
doors have been, but now are not. Blue heaven 
for its roof. Fallen bricks and dust and weeds 
for its floor ! 

Another ten miles and we were at L , 

another ruined farm, but the family had that 



HORESS TRAVELLED FOR EIGHT DAYS. 

a Photo. 






THE WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 



their home by the 

| i to last a 
themselves a 

ts and a row. and 

k from St. 

iw his farm three years 

Jit for an already 

happy lion . sur 

His 

touted from tin- 



There is a tear in his eyes, and he turns away, 
and we turn away respectfully also. 

We went tor a ramble, talking sadly, through 
the once beautiful farm gardens and orchards. 
1 1 ere. in this fair garden, " Me-Charlie " told us, 
a hot engagement took, place, which he was in. 

H, described how, after marching all night, 
they heard the cooing of hundreds of doves, 
and other sounds not so peaceful— the ping of 
tin- Mauser bullets ! 

"Oh, such a lovely morning! Just like this 




i I'.iY LITTLE CHAP HANGING TO HIS MOTHER'S SKIRTS. 






1 3 she sat in 
and the chick' 

I his day 
■ fated to watch his 

1 and speaks brokenly of 

and the 
rimy little chap hanging 
to : 

died in die concentration 
p." 



one now ! And here, behind this pomegranate 
hedge, we all crouched, with the orange and 
lemon trees over our heads, and soon this 
garden of Eden was one terrible scene of 
carnage. The bullets and shells and oranges 
and pomegranates all lay thick on the ground 
together, and the dead and wounded amongst 
them. The doves stopped cooing while the 
fighting was on, but they flew back when all was 
quiet again, and sat in the orange-branches and 
sang their gentle requiem to the fallen." 

Thus we talked as we wandered beneath the 



OUR TREK INTO GRIQUALAND. 



x 39 




I STARTED BACK, SHUDDERING, FOR A HUMAN SKUI.L LAY HIDDEN' AMONG THE FI.OWEKS. 



groves, now tangled, wild, and neglected. Ah, 
some English violets ! A whole deep hed of 
them, overgrown, but sweet to smell. I stooped 
to pick, and started back, shuddering, for a 
human skull lay hidden among the flowers ! 

" Me-Charlie " handed me a ripe fig off a 
monster tree, but I could not eat it. I wanted 
to get back to the farm, and try and comfort the 
poor family. 

The old Boer came to meet us, and invited 
us to have some mealie coffee, the only refresh- 
ment they could offer. 

We stepped across the ruined threshold, 
climbed over a high pile of fallen bricks and 
mortar, and entered the roofless kitchen. . The 
frau sat there on a log of wood — furniture 
there was none. The sun and blue sky shone 
flat down on us. A regular " Tant Sannie " was 
the frau — a mountain of phlegmatic flesh, of 
such proportions that one could only hope, 
looking at her, that her capacity for mental 
suffering was not acute. 

We talked to her and pretended to enjoy 



the concoction so hospitably 
offered us. We asked her 
questions, and she replied 
with a bland, phlegmatic smile 
and with some naivete. She 
lost five children in three 
weeks in the concentration 
camp. I glanced at her with 
deep sympathy, but it was 
impossible to tell whether the 
fact caused her any great 
sorrow. 

Yes ; she was glad to have 
her man back from St. 
Helena, and she hoped they 
would get on together now. 

" Didn't you get on together 
before ? " 

" No. I likes to 'ave my 
own way " — this without a 
spark of humour, but with a 
simplicity befitting a young 
child, not a woman. 

"We all like that," said 
" Me-Charlie," jocularly. 

" It is the cause of all life's 
quarrels," said I. " Kruger 
wanted his own way and we 
wanted ours." 

" I not like Kruger," said 
the dame, munching black 
bread ; " he has done all 
this." 

And a huge fat hand, like 

a monster red pin - cushion, 

waved heavily at the paneless 

casements, doorless doors, roofless roof, and 

floorless floor around us. 

Sitting in the kitchen you could see through 
the whole house — part of it through a rent in 
the wall, made by a shell, that a carriage and 
pair could drive through. 

As we were going a little Kaffir girl brought 
in figs for us, which we accepted with thanks. 
Then we walked out on to the veldt, where the 
Cape-cart stood outspanned. 

The new mules were careering delightedly 
over veldt and kopje, pursued by the drivers, the 
usual thing at every outspan. Kaffirs turned 
out in all directions to catch them. At last they 
were secured and inspanned, and waving fare- 
well to "Tant Sannie," who had waddled out to 
see us off, while the old Boer raised his crape- 
bound slouch hat respectfully, though with some 
reserve, we galloped away on our next stage. 

Du P 's Farm. 

We 'had to spend the night here. We reached 
Wolmaranstad about 3 p.m. yesterday, and 






1111. WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 



they had to be 

dt. 
le and 

till the 

I 

n the veldt, who 

tion stores in 

triation 

. ountry. 

. applies for it and, 

lily rations, 

iy for two years 

s help towards 

g hi> farm. 

families 
their homes in thi 

51 heme, which 

rnment a mint of money, and 

ving this aid 

land (one morgen 

I yet refuse to sell even 

iment ! I must frankly 








much 

sand 
ert with 



'THREE OKI) BOER WOMEN OVTS.PANNED ON THE VELDT. 

From a Photo. 

a dirty hovel on it ; and it was the same before 
the war. 

They plant nothing, they sow nothing, they 
never touch the ground ; many have not even a 
patch of garden. Their so-called "farming" 

consists of sitting 
in their stoep 
while their cattle 
wander over the 
veldt around, 
which, as far as 
eye can reach, is 
theirs. The cattle 
increase, and they 
sit still and call it 
farming 1 

For such " far- 
mers " one cannot 
feel over much, 
when one learns 
they are living on 
us and yet refuse 
to sell an acre or 
bestir themselves 
in any way to- 
wards making a 
living. 

Others are 
different, and for 
them one has 
every sympathy. 

The three old 

w o m e n 1 n m y 

photograph were 

all made widows by the war, but each one owns 

a farm of one thousand six hundred acres and 

will not sell an acre of it, but come daily to the 

itriation people for food. 



(To be concluded.) 



WHERE CORN IS KING. 



By Jeremy Broome. 

When a bountiful harvest makes glad the hearts of the people in the great " corn-belt " region of 
America, they celebrate their good fortune by elaborate festivals, in which corn is put to an 
amazing variety of uses. King Corn is the reigning monarch, and everybody and everything wears 

his golden livery. 




HE day when corn is truly king is 
play-day on the American prairie. 
Sometimes, of course, he is not 
king. His very existence depends 
upon the weather, upon droughts 

and climatic change ; and often he is a com- 
plete failure. At such times he does not 

venture to show his head, and the public, of 

course, do not 

celebrate. When, 

on the other 

hand, Nature has 

smiled upon the 

farmer's 1 and, 

when miles upon 

miles of territory 

ore covered with 

a monotonous 

succession of 

tasselled corn- 
stalks, like a 

plumed army in 

the field, and the 

farmer finds his 

pockets filled 

with money, then 

comes the day of 

festival. 

Happily for all 

concerned, the 

festivals have 

outnumbered the 

failures, and 

there is hardly a 

prairie town or 

State capital in 

the corn-growing 

West that has not 

indulged during 




past autumns in some carnival, lig or little, in 
honour of King Corn. 

These celebrations are unique. What the 
prairie people do not know about corn is not 
worth knowing. They know how to build, from 
the kernels and husks, gigantic structures like 
the buildings in the fairy tales. They make 
hats and dresses with the tassels and husks, 

decorating the 
hats with corn- 
flower roses. 
The very flags 
waving in the 
streets are made 
of silken corn. 
The shop signs 
and street adver- 
tisements are 
designed by corn 
artists. 

In the tourna- 
ments held dur- 
ing the carnival, 
knights in corn- 
husk armour 
joust with corn- 
stalk lances. It 
is corn, corn 
everywhere — the 
cause of all pros- 
perity. And 
with joyous heart 
the people do 
loyal honour to 
a bounteous 
monarch. 

The kingdom 
over which King 
Corn presides 



KEF.T ADVERTISEMENT MADE OF COKN. 

From a Photo, by Hill. 






THE WIDE WORl.n MAGAZINE. 




I [RELY IN CORN. 
Fro: 1 1 HI. 

" corn belt," 

Illinois, Iowa, 

two I >akotas. It 

- .tes, and, in 

I, ior its yearly output 

;,_:ircs that aim* >st 

I ■ output of so-called 

may believe the staie- 

n early 

tly it is 

the bast asked 

before the 

unci through which 

tunnel, sah," 

• 

' ilks shuts 
'lay- 
ered 
cept as 
oi the 
The 
are interesting only 



because they relate to the crops turned out 
by one of the most fertile sections of 
country in the world. 

What the people do, and not what they 
say, is far more interesting. At carnival 
time they seem never tired of doing some- 
thing, and tireless in doing anything. 
From grandfather to grandchild, from 
mother to daughter, and from cousin to 
uncle, it is fur all a season of hilarity, 
of sheer enjoyment in the spending of 
money, and of •ebullitions of excitement 
over the realizations of agricultural dreams. 
The farmer with money in his pocket 
conns into the town, with his family, to 
spend it. The local Board of Trade, or 
Citizens' Association, or whatever the 
local organization of merchants is pleased 
to call itself, spends some money, too, in 
attracting him to the town and preparing 
pleasant surprises for him in the way of 
decoration and entertainment. The mil- 
roads offer him special inducements to 
travel, and the hotels put on a new coit 



THE COKX OBELISK OF THE BLRLIN'GTON RAILROAD. 

From a Photo, by Hill. 



WHERE CORN IS KING. 



143 



of paint or get cleaned 
up for the great fes- 
tival. The merchants, 
who know as well as 
anyone what a big 
crop means, lay in a 
plentiful stock of 
clothes, hats, boots, 
mowing- machines, 
neckties, seed, and 
everything else under 
the sun for the farmer 
to take back with him 
for the winter months, 
and they dress up their 
windows as attractively 
as possible. The 

townspeople are as enthusiastic as the farmers, 
and join heartily in a common cause. " It is sur- 
prising," as one Western writer has recently 
said, " what can be done with a thousand 
dollars in cash used for a single day of glory — 
and that is spent by more than one prairie 
town in having its 
annual fun." 

The corn carnival 
originated in Atchi- 
son, Kansas, and the 
ideas there adopted 
in the first and fol- 
lowing years of festi- 
val have been widely 
copied throughout 
the West. We have 
already mentioned 
the costumes made 
of corn which, 
according to the 
custom of the car- 
nival, are worn by 
one and all — cos- 
tumes which our 
photographs prettily 
illustrate. Not to 
wear clothing made 
of corn or to disport 
some corn - wrought 
token of the occa- 
sion is to declare 
oneself an outsider. 
Many of the dresses 
show wonderful skill 
and good taste. The 
hats are sometimes 
of great beauty, the 
well - known Gains- 
borough style being 
closely imitated by 
young ladies with a 




EVEN THE CHARMING HATS WORN HY THE LADIES ARE MADE OF 
CORN AND DECORATED WITH CORNFLOWER ROSES. 

From a Photo, by Hill. 




HERE WE SEE KING CORN HIMSELF SEATED ON HIS CORN-COB THRONE. 

From a Photo, by Hill. 



knack for millinery. 
There seems, indeed, 
to be no limit to the 
possibilities of the coi n 
husk for use in cos- 
tume or decoration, 
and novelty of effect 
is sought for each year 
with increasing ardour. 
No carnival is 
deemed to be com- 
plete without a pro- 
cession, and it is in 
these functions that 
the handiwork of the 
corn artist is best seen. 
No procession, more- 
over, is complete without King Corn himself, 
who is usually represented seated on a throne 
of corn-cobs. His robes are of silk, his arms 
and hands of cobs, his face of papier-mache, 
and his eyes of glass. He is the personification 
of regal dignity, and as the procession passes 

near him, headed by 
the local band, he 
attracts the un- 
divided attention of 
the merry - making 
populace. 

That such a boun- 
teous monarch 
should exist without 
a home was soon 
discovered by the 
exuberant Western- 
ers to be absurdly 
inappropriate. 
Accordingly, in 
some of the cities 
palaces have been 
erected in his special 
honour — not tem- 
porary structures, 
but actual palaces, 
made to last. It was 
left to the people of 
Mitchell, in South 
Dakota, to build 
King Corn his first 
palace. This was in 
the year 1892. The 
palace was inaugu- 
rated as a means of 
advertising the re- 
sources of the coun- 
try, and the imme- 
diate increase of 
farmers throughout 
the State was the 






II li: WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 



which 

e luin- 
;wo 
nearly one 
building is 

■ i) this are 
are in every con 
.ill made of corn. To 
an endless task 
- ii fa with 
much ii 
The ruin is 
I moist and is then 
idinally, the flat surl 



wheat and flax straw, and from the flagstaff's 
wave the flags of the various nations. The 
whole exterior exhibits a bewildering splendour 
to the eye. Word-painting gives a very inade- 
quate description of the exterior and interior 
beauty of the structure; it must be seen to be 
appreciated. Except that the beautiful colour- 
ings of the corn are lost, our photograph gives 
a very good representation of the building. 

The interior of the corn palace shows a wider 
range of decorative art, and it is here that the 
ladies are given a free hand to display their 
artistic ability. A gallery runs around the entire 
circumference of the building, and this space is. 







THE C INGs I'ALACE AT MITCHELL, SOUTH DAKOTA 



Hoyt Cox. 



1 :ilding. The corn is of all 

v, white, red, mottled, 

I various colours aid 

n'ally in forming and 

the most famous of 

Mr. A. : »f Lawrence, 

in the foregoing 

g, the base 

-. unique designs being 

ral plan 

irisapor- 

king picture 

. silk. The 

mty an wetry 

and th . lecorative 

are covered with 



divided into booths, designed as fancy dictates. 
Some of these booths are shown in illustrations, 
as also are a few of the set pieces. All the 
material used in the decoration of these booths 
is grown on the local farms. The material com- 
prises corn silk, corn husks, pampas grass, and 
grains of com, the latter being used to work out 
myriads of designs. In one booth are shown 
the primitive inhabitants of the erstwhile Dakota 
Territory, whose domain was extensive in the 
early days of the settlement. The Indian is 
pictured with a tepee, made of corn husks, and 
other articles. A millinery booth shows figures 
draped in corn-husk dresses, and wearing hats 
made of pampas grass which has been coloured 
for variety. One's eye is everywhere greeted 






WHERE CORN IS KINO. 



MS 




THE INTERIOR OF A .MILLINER'S SHOP— ALL THE " CREATIONS " DISPLAYED ARE MADE AND TRIMMED WITH I 

From a Photo. l>y Hoyt Cox. 



with the spectacle of corn designs worked out 
with beauty and intelligence. Every piece of 
rafter, ceiling, and wooden support in the build- 
ing is decorated in some manner. It is a 
gorgeous scene indeed. 

On the first floor the county exhibits are to 
be seen. The counties surrounding send their 



products to the cum palace, and they are 
arranged as is shown in one of our photographs. 
A dozen counties make a display every year, 
and these are seen by the Eastern visitor, who 
is thus given a very fair idea of what can be pro- 
duced in South Dakota. The variety of the 
products is indeed surprising to the average 




From a Photo, by] 
Vol. xii.- 19. 



INTERIOR OF A CARNEGIE LIBRARY," TASTEFULLY DECORATED WITH CORN-COBS. [Hoyt CoX. 



146 



1111. WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 







ONE OF THE COUNTY EXHIBITS. 



might well be incredulous as to the 

In this one 

: many different varieties of 

irley, grasses, timothy, 

. which grow abundantly here ; 

-. walnuts, butternuts, potatoes — 

1 mammoth size — celery, bi 

■. :is, squash, and, in the way of fruit, 

- peaches, and strawberries. 

•heir place in the growth of the 

in this and to a greater extent 

.•er beli. sible. What is 

ounty 

ining the 
they 

na- 

red • 

- 

-jn into 
pi 
.. and 

1 .ce of 



1 




1 


\0; 






1 




1 



" FRUIT AND FLOWERS MADE ENTIRELY OF CORN 
ARE THE CORN I'ALACE. 

Irom a Photo. 



\Hoyt Cox. 

hundred miles around. The interior of the 
building is lighted during the afternoon and 
evening with hundreds of incandescent electric 
lights. 

The corn -palace exhibit is fostered wholly 
by the citizens of Mitchell. They contribute 
money each autumn to establish the enterprise, 
and, although it is a gigantic undertaking for a 
town of five thousand people, it has never yet 
failed of success. As an advertising feature of the 
State it has worked wonders. It has displayed the 
products and resources of the State in the most 

varied form, and has 
demonstrated what 
can be produced 
fioin the soil under 
all conditions. The 
development of a 
new country like 
South Dakota is 
somewhat of a d;ffi 
cult problem because 
of the scepticism 
that exists in the 
minds of the Eastern 
people, who have to 
be shown things 
before they believe. 
The corn palace 
teaches a lesson 
which can be learned 
in no other way. 



The " Sea-Serpent " of the "Tresco." 

By Joseph Ostens Grey, Second Officer of the ss. "Tresco." 

Will the problem of the " sea=serpent " ever he satisfactorily solved? Scientists and others scoff at the 
idea of its existence, and cast ridicule upon those who claim to have seen it ; nevertheless, hardly a year 
passes without a seemingly well authenticated account of its appearance being added to the cases on 
record. We publish herewith the story of Mr. J. O. Grey, second officer of the ss. " Tresco," of the well- 
known Earn Line, whose statements are corroborated by the captain of the vessel and other eye-witnesses. 




THE AUTHOR, 

From a] 



MR. JOSEl'H OSTENS GREY, SECON I) OFFICER OF 

THE SS. "TRESCO." [Photo. 




EAFARIXG men expect storms and 
sometimes wrecks, but for most men 
of the merchant marine in times of 
peace there is much monotony in 
their voyages to and from the 
various ports they seek during their years at 
sea. On an ordinary voyage, such as I have 
taken, year in and year out, for sixteen years, a 
remarkable experience befell me recently. 

I know that the very word " sea-serpent " is 
the signal for joking, ridicule, and utter incredu- 
lity. While many reports 
have been brought to 
land, no sea-serpent, 
small or large, and no 
fragment of head or fin 
have ever been subjected 
to study by any recognised 
scientist ; and yet such a 
creature confronted the 
steamship Tresco when on 
her last outward voyage 
horn the United States. 

We left the port of Phila- 
delphia, in Pennsylvania, 
on May 28th, 1903, for 
Santiago de Cuba, which we 



reached on June 5th, and w T e arrived back in 
Philadelphia on June 14th. The Tresco belongs to 
Mr. E. C. Thin, a shipowner whose office is at 
27, Chapel Street, Liverpool ; she is under a two 
years' charter to the Earn Line, o( Philadelphia. 
The Tresco is a large cargo-steamer engaged in 
the West India trade. She plies from one port to 
another, usually laden with sugar, but sometimes 
with iron. Her length is three hundred and 
eight feet, her registered tonnage one thousand 
eight hundred and sixty tons, and her gross 
tonnage three thousand seven hundred and fifty 
tons. 

On this trip it so happened that, instead of 
the Tresco being heavily laden with a return 
cargo, she was going out in water ballast ; the 
ship was therefore very light. She rose well out 
of the water, her rail some twenty feet above 
it. Her draught was no more than twelve feet 
and she was extremely "tender." Twenty tons 
of coal deposited on either side of the main 
deck would have given her a dangerous list to 
port or starboard, as the case might be. We 
encountered no heavy weather and all went well 
on board ; it was the true monotony of the 
merchant marine. 

Our crew, of course, changes from trip to 
trip, but our officers have been a long time with 
the company, all of whose ships have somewhat 
similar names, beginning with Tr, like Tripoli 
and Tronto. Our skipper is Captain W. H. 
Bartlett, whose home address is James Villa, 
Looe, Cornwall ; our first officer is Mr. Elias 
Griffiths, who lives near High Park Street, 







11 1 1 WIDE WORLD 



li O. 

i irnish 
■ had twenty 

\ 

thirty t: 
man to 

my 
11 
tl introduc- 

Now I 51 IV. 

what 
iblem i- 
Wl the 

mutiny may be, 
are at 
hand on ai -li ship : it 

I 
ir pirati- 
the ti 

When in 
oilman 
i nothing more awe- 

lan a harmli ss camera, which accom- 
ges up to the one 

iut, some ninety miles 
s. All wa.s going smoothly 



MAGAZINE. 

his 




I N" W. 1 

From 



Photo. 



paint- 

■ 

but 
30th 

1 the 

■ 



work of the ship was 




demanding his attention, he was taking a 
morning nap. 

About ten o'clock I saw, on our port bow, 
something creating a vast amount of disturbance 
in the water, l'hc commotion was so great that 
I judged it to be a school of 
porpoises, which herd together 
and play, jumping above the 
water like great Newfoundland 
dogs. It is not at all un- 
common to see a school of 
them in those waters ; but, 
somehow, the approaching 
school seemed different. I 
watched them closely as they 
neared the vessel from the 
south-east. 

Whatever was approaching 
the vessel, the water was surg- 
ing about some large fish which 
presently I discovered were 
not porpoises, but sharks. 
Now sharks are common 
enough, but not in solid masses 
as was the school I now beheld 
travelling at such great speed. 
It seemed to me a phenomenal 
departure from anything I had 
heretofore observed in regard 
to these voracious and savage creatures. They 
were not attracted to the vessel by anything 
thrown overboard, but held steadily on their way. 
They seemed to be some maritime express, 
bound for Cape Hatteras ; for, from the time 
we sighted them until they disappeared, they 
kept to their course, as if making all speed. 

What impelled them 
to travel at such a 
rate I could not im- 
agine ; nor could I 
offer any explanation 
for their assembly in 
such a solid mass. 

Sharks differ in size 
and there are several 
varieties. So far as 
I could tell these 
were the usual bottle- 
nosed shark. They 
were swim m i n g 
shoulder to shoulder, 
closely packed to- 
gether, their dorsal 
fins cutting the water 
steadily. Occasion- 
ally their snouts ap- 
peared. It was a 
curious spectacle, 
and. while in no way 



■^-■' 1^ I,,., 1 



i:l II WHO VOUCH 

INK TRUTH HI- HIS STATEMENTS. 

From a Photo. 



THE "SEA-SERPENT"' OF THE "TRESCO." 



[49 




S.S. Tre sc o" 



Seamonsfer 



CHART SHOWING THE COURSE OF THE TRESCO FROM THE TIME 

THE MONSTER WAS FIRST SIGHTED UNTIL THE ORIGINAL 

COURSE WAS RESUMED. 

alarmed, I watched them until they were out of 
sight. In all, as nearly as I could count them 
as they passed, their number was about forty. 

I saw no more sharks. The time went by 
uneventfully. My mind reverted several times 
to that rushing herd of sea - tigers, and no 
reason for such swift, steady pursuit of an un- 
changing course occurred to me. My wonder 
rather increased than diminished. 

The passing of the sharks had made me 
unusually on the alert. About an hour later I 
espied a fresh object in the water on our port 
bow. It was some distance away, due south-east 
— exactly the direc- 
tion from which the 
sharks had appeared. 
It was floating low, 
and it looked black. 
I thought it must be 
a derelict — one of 
those wandering, 
drifting hulks, so 
desolate to see, so 
dangerous to en- 
counter. 

I instantly gave 
orders to the man at 
the wheel to steer for 
the derelict. The 
Tresco was steaming 
along due south ; but 
now she swung gradu- 
ally about until she 
was going exactly 
south-east. The sea. 
was still calm and 



smooth. We sped easily on our way, with little 
said except, " It is a derelict ; steer for her." 

The man at the wheel beside me on the 
bridge thought so too as we headed for it, 
wondering how much of a hulk it would prove 
to be, or what we should ascertain of its history. 
We always steer for derelicts in the hope 
of possibly rescuing survivors ; or some poor 
bodies may remain that need decent Christian 
consignment to the sea. It is, besides, an 
important duty resting upon the masters of all 
vessels to report to the Hydrographic Office 
the name of every derelict met with. 

During the twenty minutes we were steering 
toward it I was decidedly puzzled. It seemed 
to me that this low-lying, dark object was 
moving toward us, as well as we toward it. It 
did not look like the hull of a vessel ; nor could 
it be a raft. Neither would move so swiftly 
toward us. What could it be? The puzzle- 
grew stranger. I stared intently, as every 
moment brought us nearer. We would soon 
know, at all events. The powerful engines were 
driving us onward so rapidly that the solution 
would be now a matter of but a few minutes. 
And yet the time seemed long. Nearer and 
nearer we drew and at last we were but two 
ships' lengths away. With a conviction that 
grew ever deeper, and ever more disquieting, we 
came to know that this thing could be no 
derelict, no object the hand of man had 
fashioned, no object, probably, the eyes of man 
had ever seen. 

Now, swiftly, with a terrible uprising, a mighty 
and horrible head came out of the water, sur- 
mounting a tall, powerful neck that had the 




THE AUTHOR AND THE QUARTERMASTER ON THE BRIDGE OF THE " TRESCO " IN THE EXACT POSITIONS 
From a] THEY OCCUPIED WHEN THE MONSTER WAS FIRST SIGHTED. [Photo. 






Till WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 



iwful 



Iral p 

the In, 

uartermaster, a 
I, held the 

n upon 
it well, and 



'•Jump. Leon 




I OF 1 lit U ATKI 



not daring to 

ith an unknown, overmastering 

on the bridge 

2jon-like head, 

rful neck. It 

lid it be? — 

ar. 

II as the helmsman 

Jan de Man, the 

latswain, and a 

., who from 

\fter the 

ik place on 

iscipline, were 

■ for himself. ( )f 

below, and 

down to 

1 haste ; and I 

not know. 
i bsorbed by the object 



in the water. I felt that I must run somewhere, 
anywhere, to get away ; and yet the weird and 
awful thing, there before us, held my gaze in the 
one direction. 

At length I recovered some measure of my 
self-possession. 

jump down into the wheel- 
house!" I shouted. 
" Steer down there. Let's 
get out of this fellow's 
road ! " 

The man obeyed with 
alacrity ; and I, only too 
gladly, followed him. 
There were seven steps 
to be descended ; and I 
felt like a child afraid of 
the dark does when it 
runs upstairs to bed, think- 
ing a bogey is after it in 
the hallways. I was 
frightened ; there is no 
use to deny the fact. 

Once inside the wheel- 
house, 1 flung the door 
to and locked it, thank- 
ful for even this frail 
barrier— thankful for the 
slight protection of the 
wheel house, a mere no- 
thing to such an adver- 
sarj . There we were, 
silent both of us. Leon 
took his place at the 
wheel. We waited for 
what was to come next, 
still with the same sense 
of awe and huge, overwhelming dread upon us. 
The wheel-house and chart-room adjoin, being 
one compartment with a partition. In front 
there are four windows, commanding a wide 
range ; but, unluckily, from his position at the 
i Leon could no longer see the object. 
It was too near. He stayed at his post, need- 
ing no orders. I stepped into the chart-room 
to his left, where I could obtain a full view of 
the serpent as it faced us. 

I could see it steadily and well from the chart- 
room port-hole. I looked and tried to notice 
every possible thing about it. yet wondering 
anxiously all the while how we should escape. 
The man at the wheel, and I with my face close 
to the port-hole, were stricken too dumb with 
astonishment and tear combined to say a word 
to each other. We did not say, "What is it? 
What shall we do if it comes nearer?" Nor 
did we discuss its appearance and actions. To 
me it was sickening and horrifying, and Leon had 
seen quite enough before he fled from the bridge. 



THE "SEA-SERPENT" OF THE "TRESCO." 



151 



Out of the formless horror within me a dread 
arose which shaped itself into a distinct, dis- 
maying apprehension. What if the thing should 
attack the steamer ? The consequences loomed 
up, fearfully appalling, to my swiftly realizing 
imagination. The creature, assuredly, was 
enraged. So enormous was its size, so vast its 
strength, that even a steamer like the Tresco 
would be in danger of some kind — perhaps of 
many kinds. The 
rail of the ship, it 
was true, was twenty 
feet above the water ; 
but the head and 
neck of the serpent 
were already elevated 
to a height of fifteen 
feet. It could easily 
come aboard. The 
whole deck, all the 
upper works, in fact, 
would be at the 
mercy of its rage ! 

But far more seri- 
ous to contemplate 
was the problem of 
its mere weight. That 
alone was a menace 
to the ship's safety. 
As I have said, we 
were going out in 
ballast, very light. 
Such a weight on 
one side would in- 
evitably list the 
vessel, for the centre 
of gravity was so 
high that any heavy, 
ill - placed burden 
meant the gravest 
danger. 

There that evil thing remained, the body 
motionless, the tail undulating vertically. As it 
lashed the water with the long, snake-like tail 
the head all the time was reared high, regarding 
the lresco as if waiting to see what such a 
thing as a ship might be and, until it should 
decide, determined to maintain its watchful 
position. It looked for all the world like 
some fantastic Chinese dragon become a 
living reality ; or a page from a scientific 
work picturing some ancient saurian monster, 
neither reptile nor beast wholly, but both in 
part. 

When I first saw it, lying so low as to appear 
like a derelict, I must have seen only the back 
and body. The head was probably resting on 
the shoulders, as a swan sometimes rests, until, 
coming within two ships' lengths, we alarmed 




WE WAITED FOR WHAT WAS TO COME NEXT 



it by our unfaltering approach to the position of 
defensive attention. 

We needed no binoculars. A sailor sees as 
no landsman sees ; his eyes are trained to 
watch sky and sea and every object which 
may affect the welfare of the ship. And, 
indeed, the serpent was so near that even 
untrained eyes could have distinguished the 
most minute details of its appearance. 

I estimated the 
length of the crea- 
ture at about one- 
third that of the 
Tresco, or one hun- 
dred feet. We saw 
it only in perspec- 
tive up to this time, 
for it remained 
facing us, neither 
wheeling nor chang- 
ing position. 

I judged it to be 
about eight feet in 
diameter in the 
widest part of its 
body, and so about 
twenty feet in cir- 
cumference. The 
body was not cylin- 
drical at all. It had 
a noticeable arch 
toward the top, and 
the hump of the back 
sloped downwards to 
the neck as well as 
toward the tail. It 
was widest at the 
forward end, rapidly 
tapering backward 
from the hump above 



the shoulders. 

There was something unspeakably loathsome 
about the head, which was five feet long from 
nose to upper extremity. Such a head I never 
saw on any denizen of the sea. The neck, eighteen 
inches in diameter, was slender by comparison. 
Underneath the jaw there seemed to be a sort 
of pouch, or drooping skin ; there may have 
been a slight bulge there. The neck was 
smallest half-way between the head and where 
it joined the body. 

The nose, like a snout upturned, was some- 
what recurved. It was rather pointed in its 
general formation, but blunt at the end. I can 
remember no nostrils or blow-holes. The lower 
jaw was prognathous, and the lower lip was half 
projecting, half pendulous. Presently I noticed 
something dripping from the ugly lower jaw. 
Watching, I saw that it was saliva, of a dirty 



THE WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 








hich dropped from the cornei 

. it did po 

molars. There were 

and backward like walrus's 

in length, at the 

ith. They were of a dirty 

th or tongue it did not 

t il mouth was red. 
of a de( ided reddish 
in the head, like 

r-fowl. 'I!, 

not lateral, were 

d, and were 

d. Th >test 

1 their extreme 

pupil w. ble. The 

to be red, of 

tne They carried in their 



dull depths a 
sombre, baleful 
glow, as if within 
them was concentra- 
ted all the fierce 
menacing spirit that 
raged in the huge 
bulk behind. 

Below the eyes 
some scales a p- 
peared, which drag- 
ged backward, be- 
coming larger and 
larger until, on the 
body, they were 
great plates, or pro- 
tuberances like the 
denticulated ridges 
of an alligator's hide. 
They did not glisten 
like the scales of a 
fish. The smallest 
of the scales, near 
the eyes, measured 
about three inches 
in diameter, and 
were so little oval as 
to appear completely 
round. The largest 
of the scales, or in- 
durations, located 
upon the shoulders, 
presented a form 
more pronouncedly 
oval, and these were 
some eight inches 
long, five inches 
wide, and four inches 
high, theirapex being 
a distinct ridge. 
The hide, in the general tone of its colour, 
could be compared to nothing but antique 
bronze, showing the distinct light green hue 
of the oxidized metal. The tone of the colour 
was lightest upon the back and sides. As it 
shaded toward the almost wholly submerged 
belly it became a dull, dark green, deepening 
its hue with the decrease in the size of the 
plates or indurations constituting the creature's 
nsive armour.* 
It held itself in the same relative position to 
the ship during all the time the impressions I 
have enumerated were photographed indelibly 
on my brain. Its side fins, extending one- 
third of the way from the shoulder to the 

( Mjr readers will find it interesting to compare this description 
with that of the monster seen by Captain Thomson, of the Sydney 
(N.S.W.) steamer Nemesis, and Captain Grant, of the ss. Perth, 
off Cape Naturaliste, West Australia. This appeared in our issue 
f..r March, 1901. — Ed. 




1ESE DRAGON. 






THE "SEA-SERPENT" OF THE "TRESCO." 



*S5 



LOG of the S.S. (S'Wjfrf 



\ 4;'*W 



Z&dL 



beginning of the tail, and broadest — about a 
foot — near the shoulder, worked like fans in 
swift agitation of the water. 

As I gazed, fascinated with the horror of the 
thing, it raised its dorsal fin, obviously in wrath. 
And then a thing happened which, strange as it 
may appear after the recounting of the fearsome- 
ness of the serpent's dreadful front, was more 
appalling, more sickeningly terrifying, than any- 
thing I had yet beheld. Suddenly, at the back 
of the head, a great webbed crest uprose, and 
from the eyes, hitherto so dull save for the 
glow smouldering in their depths, a scintillating 

glare appeared, as if 

the creature felt the 
moment had come 
for attack. The crest 
was a foot in height 
at its forward ex- 
tremity, where it was 
supported by a sharp- 
pointed spine. 

The undulations of 
its tail increased in 
violence. It lashed 
the water in fury. Its 
reddish eyes were 
fixed upon us ; but, 
threatening as it 
appeared, it came no 
nearer. The novelty 
of our appearance, 
and our size, seemed 
to make it hesitate. 
In what way it would 
have attacked us I 



monster. I unlocked the door and flung it wide, 
and ran aft along the starboard side as fast as 
I could. I burst in upon the captain in his state- 
room. He was lying down, but was fully dressed. 
The noise of my entrance startled him. 

" Come on, captain, quick ! " I exclaimed. 
" Come up and see this animal ! " 

Springing up instantly he was ready to follow. 
He comprehended that something unusual was 
near, yet he was astonished at such a report 
from an excited mate, five seconds more and 
we two stood together on the poop, where we 
could have a clear view and, as I knew now, 



/-■ 






from /s?bUJLJ f //M*:J2' 



True Course. 



At Noon — 



L«t_ 

Long.. 



Latitude. 



By krr iil" 9 A 
ByObe 



Longtitude. 



tig Ac- ?i''- /f flfty Acc. 
B; Chr By Obo _ 



Bearing. 



Distance Hun 



Direction. 



X/A hty. 



towards ■Jyfrist.Ai.G.Jr'0 



HEMATICS ON 
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FACSIMILE OF A PAGE IN THE 



can only imagine. 

This hesitation and 
anger, combined, kept it at a standstill, and our 
fear and helplessness for resistance kept us 
quiet. The creature remained in this fashion, 
glaring at us, for a few moments more. Then 
I saw it was about to act. 

It was going to turn away from us. I could 
scarcely credit my senses. I watched its new 
tactics carefully. Yes, it was moving and turn- 
ing ; it was about to go from us. I felt an 
infinite, deep-breathed sense of relief. 

Its great body turned, as if on a pivot, inward 
in a circle, followed by its long tail. With 
astonishing ease for so huge a bulk it made the 
sweeping evolution. And only then did it lower 
its ugly head, that had so long confronted us in 
open antagonism. I began to breathe more 
steadily. I was certain now. It was afraid, and 
would go peaceably. 

_^ Only at that last moment did I think of 
Captain Bartlett. I must call him, now that I 
dared to venture out. I wanted him to see the 

Vol. xii.— 20. 



' TRESCO S LOG SHOWING THE ENTRY CONCERNING THE SCHOOL 
SHARKS AND THE SEA MONSTER. 

a safe place from which to gaze upon our grue- 
some visitant. I was half glad, half worried to 
find it was still in sight. The captain would 
not think me demented. 

Captain Bartlett stood transfixed. A moment 
and he found his voice : — 

" Good heavens ! What's that ? " 

"I take it, sir," I replied, "to be a sea- 
serpent." 

" I believe you're right," he rejoined. 

We stood there waiting to see whether it 
would go or return. 

The serpent, or whatever else it may have 
been, was on our port quarter, for the engines 
had been driving us steadily ahead. The 
distance at which it was then removed was about 
a quarter of a mile. Its tail was now toward 
us. The back of its head, sunk upon the 
shoulders, was visible, together with the twenty- 
five feet of the body which I have hitherto 
characterized as the hump of the back. As we 






1111 WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 




THAT? 



without changing the 

k, lurched forward 

n which I can compare, 

. and great dis- 

r, to nothing except the 

:d, watei I sailing 

lich plunges down I 

ttles in the water. 

n all it _ undulating extension, 

merely to 
dragged down 
■vhich it 

' laptain Bartlett 
what really had heen 

efore, Grey ? " 
d. 

om, sir," 
it the terrifying thing was gone we 



could talk and compare our obser- 
vations and ideas concerning it. 
As I have said, I did not notice 
any nostrils ; but I believe it was 
a breathing animal, endowed with 
lungs. While no sound reached 
my ears as we approached it, and 
while Leon and I were hidden in 
the chart-room, Captain Bartlett 
thought he heard distinctly, as we 
stood side by side on the poop, a 
noise which came from the crea- 
ture that was in the nature of a 
snort or, to be exactly correct, 
a hoot. The sound, according to 
the recollection of Captain Bart- 
lett, might be compared to the 
noise of a shrill tug-boat whistle. 
For myself, I must frankly say I 
can recall absolutely no sound. 
The coincidence of the appear- 
ance of the sharks and of the 
great lizard during the same hour 
is something I can affirm but can- 
not attempt to explain. An in- 
ference that would seem obvious 
is that the sharks were fleeing 
from the monster. But, in the 
absence of definite knowledge, 
it must remain coincidence, and 
nothing more. 

After the exchange of these 
few observations Captain Bartlett 
turned to me and said : — - 
" I have had many strange ex- 
periences, as you know ; and I 
have seen many strange sights. 
But I confess this thing is, with- 
out doubt, the most horrible and 
blood-curdling that I have ever 
looked on. Grey," he continued, " words can- 
not describe its loathsomeness, or the horror 
and terror with which I gazed upon it." 

All this time none of the crew had dared 
come on deck. Our chief officer, Mr. Griffiths, 
was asleep in his cabin. The men who had 
fled so hastily, and the others who came at 
their call, looked out fearfully at the serpent 
from the forecastle ports. The steward, John 
Jackson, a coloured man from Baltimore, who 
saw it, was greatly terrified. He has since left 
the Tresco, having been engaged only for the 
voyage. Those who did not see it, like Chief- 
officer Griffiths, can testify to the general excite- 
ment and the facts elicited by the subsequent 
discussion among the men who did. 

When the danger was over the men cautiously 
returned to the deck. Faces appeared at the 
hatches, and, after a little reconnoitring, up 



THE "SEA-SERPENT" OF THE "TRESCO." 



*55 






u 



f 



f&Jin,. 



Sjua_ s_^_ 












CERTIFICATE SIGNED BY CAPT. BAKTLETT ANP MEMBERS OF 

THE CREW WHO SAW THE MONSTER. THE CHIEF OFFICER 

AUTHENTICATF.S THE SIGNATURES. 



the companion-way they came, looking carefully 
astern, to assure themselves that the monster 
was really gone. Gradually, as they regained 
courage, they resumed their work, although 
they were careful to remain in groups, still 
talking over the astonishing event. After a 
long time had elapsed they were hardy 
enough to joke about it, although they had 
been so scared ; and they repeated the story 
to the men in the engine-room, who had, of 
course, not even caught a glimpse of the 
stranger. 

All this time the sea had remained quiet 
and the weather the same, so the conditions 
throughout were most favourable for view- 
ing the monster. 

I now ordered the vessel to be put on 
her course again — due south. The incident 
was over ; our work was before us. 
Whatever danger had existed was passed. 
Santiago was to be reached, and we made 
that port on the fifth day afterward. 

As I watched through the port and, later, 
on the bridge, when, my fear abating, I could 



collect my thoughts better, I wished we possessed 
powerful guns which could tear a hole in that 
appalling head or through the armoured body, 
so that we could secure the carcass as a trophy 
and settle once for all the controversy concern- 
ing the sea-serpent. And I clenched my hands 
with annoyance, as I have clenched them many 
times since, when I thought of that camera of 
mine, ashore and useless, awaiting my next trip 
to St. Thomas. Why had I left it there, when 
now, for the first time in my life, I really 
needed it ? 

During the five days that were required for 
the remainder of the voyage our conversation 
naturally reverted to the exciting morning and 
to the experience we never expect will be ours 
again. I, for one, sincerely hope it will not be 
repeated, unless for the corroboration of this 
statement and to assist science by delivering to 
some learned body the carcass of another such 
monster. 

We have carefully collated all the facts. 
Our conclusion is that the creature was, 
without doubt, a mammal, like porpoises and 
whales, although more like a reptile in appear- 
ance. 

At Santiago I prepared a report for the Press 
of Philadelphia, to be presented on my return. 
Although I made it out carefully, it drew forth 
the usual jests in several quarters, but it 
was credited in others. How bitterly I have 
regretted that I had no photographs to settle 
the doubts of those who questioned the accuracy 
of the drawings I have since made from 
memory ! I have but to shut my eves, and 
that ineffaceable picture rises before my mind in 
all its horrible detail. 



OUuC 522 jiTb ■ 

-lie, sjJ K 2^cc* L^ci 'ZU ^-^- Q 




Co-^-^~^C- <*•*• (^*~ 






THE AUTHORS LETTER VOUCHING FOR THE TRUTH OF THE ABOVE STORY. 



VMONG THE BOOBIES. 



Bv Captain Boyd Alexander, Rifle Brigade. 

ce of savages living in the little - known interior of the Island of 
.oast of Africa. The author recently visited these curious people, and 
describes his experiences in the accompanying article. 




11 the in 

rd life 
n the I 

r<>. i 

mied 
ral 

< H th( se an 

. Mr. i 

\ 

: di- 

N _ r in 

\l( -srs. 

■in — 

with 

•id 

. a monument marking their resting- 

for a short time the 

-eat of Govern- 

■ 'ii Museum, 

dition, and 

ian naturalist, was re- 




THE AU1 HOK, C.\ 

RIFLE 
From a Photo, by G. 



Owing to the great 
dearth of labour on the 
island I found that it 
was absolutely necessary 
to engage carriers from 
the West Coast, and for 
that purpose I decided 
to consult Sir Ralph 
Moor, the High Com- 
missioner of Southern 
Nigeria, on my arrival 
at Old Calabar. He 
kindly gave me every 
assistance, putting at my 
disposal a gang of good 
carriers for a period of 
two months. They were 
a little afraid to go at 
first, but with the offer 
of good pay and the 
assurance that they 
would be brought back 
again I overcame their scruples. Fernando Po 
has a bad name among them. Labourers who 
have been induced to go to the cocoa planta- 
tions there have been badly treated. The chief 
transgressors are Sierra Leone natives, who 
have acquired ownership of a great many of 
the farms. 



I.IAWNDF.K, OF THE 
UK. 

// 'est d~ Sons, Sout/isc-a. 




' PO. 

From a Photo. 



AMONG THE BOOBIES. 



157 



After a stay of five days at Old Calabar the 
ss. Oron weighed anchor, and another day at 
sea brought us within sight of Fernando Po. 
It was towards evening, and the lofty Clarence 
Peak, cut in two by long rifts of fleecy clouds, 
stood out clear and distinct, bathed in the last 
glows of a tropical sunset. Unlike the Canary 
Islands, with their volcanic peaks covered with 
the filmy green of short-lived grass, Fernando 
Po rises from the sea a mass of lofty hills, 
clothed to their very summits with thick bush 
and virgin forest. 

The approach is from the northward, the 
steamers dropping anchor in the beautiful 
little Bay of St. Isabel, whose background is the 
lofty peak, ten thousand eight hundred feet in 
height. Away 
across the water to 
the distant left its 
taller sister, the 
Camaroon Peak, 
also clothed with 
forest growth, is 
visible even down 
to the white-walled 
houses of Victoria, 
nestling at its base. 
From the illustra- 
tion of St. Isabel 
reproduced on the 
previous page some 
idea can be formed 
of its beauty. The 
bay is in the form 
of a semi-circle, and 
the sides all round 
are steep, affording 
ample protection to 
the boats, while 
within twenty yards 
of the shore anchor- 
age in five fathoms 
can be obtained. 

On the left of 
the picture the 
two large houses 
represent the 
barracks and 
the hospital. A 
company of 
Senegalese sol- 
diers forms the 
garrison. The 
church is a 
Roman Catho- 
lic one, and 
belongs to the 
padres on the 
island, Principal 



Father Coll and Padres Renola and Albanell, 
to the latter of whom I am much indebted 
for the photographs in this article. They are 
kind people, and have done much excellent 
work. They can turn their hands to anything; 
nothing seems to come amiss to them. 

There is nothing beautiful or picturesque in 
the town itself. Zinc buildings predominate, 
occupied by the Government officials and the 
Spanish and English merchants, who chiefly carry 
on the cocoa trade for which the island is famous. 

There is one 
thing, however, 
worth seeing, 
and that is the 
great mango 








THE GREAT MANGO AVENUE— IT IS MORE THAN HALF A MILE 
LONG AND PROVIDES THE NATIVES WITH AN AMPLE 

From a] store of food. {Photo. 






THE WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 



•\n. planted by a 

than half a mile 

\ mmetrical beauty. 

. forming a 

tedral, and in the 

i!i. ground 

food to 

■ 

said good-bye to 

. and wenl ashore 

i.l carriers, the expedition 

I surf boats. rhrough 

-. arranging our loads 

an early start into the 

• morrow. Much assistance was 

1 I the well-known West 

firm of Messrs. Holt. The 

r, thi |uis Montefuerte, also showed 

s, and allowed all our ige to 

ms duty. This was a distinct 

- re heavy ; for instance, 

it. is charged on spirits and 50 per 

■ 

rl difficulties were much increased 
ur havii • ke with us trade goods, such 

r, cloth, etc., for 

- in the interior <>f the island put no 

< 1 can seldom be induced to 

it i a and collecting kit, 

k up a number of loads, 

■ • be taken for our men. 

' wi had carriers with 



us, as dure was not a single spare labourer to 
be had on the island — a curious state of things 
in a country so fertile and full of possibilities. 

At 5.30 next morning our column was on the 
move. This quick departure surprised everyone. 
The hotel keeper, a Spaniard, exclaimed, "The 
English can do anything," while "They mean 
business was the remark to be heard on ah 

sides. 

The natives, known as "Bubis,"or in English 
" Boobies," are extremely indolent, and nothing 
will induce them to work. They are a peculiar 
race and lack the intelligence of the West 
African native. Of short stature, with broad 
faces, especially the women, they are by no 
means prepossessing in appearance, while they 
add to their natural ugliness by means of several 
curious customs. A hempen band about six 
inches wide is fixed tight round the upper arms 
and often below the knees. This in time pro- 
duces horrible deformity. These curious bands 
will be seen in the next photograph, which 
shows a native group at a cocoa farm. They 
also coat their bodies and faces all over with 
mud, d\vd red with the leaf of a tree grown on 
the island, patterns often being made, especially 
on the* face, the lower portion of which is 
smeared entirely over, terminating in a line as 
far as the nostrils. 

As a rule their hair, which is very woolly, is 
likewise reddened with this mud, while children 
are treated in the same way by their mothers. 







IOBIRS AT A COCOA FARM. 



\rhoto. 



AMONG THE BOOBIES. 



*59 



I have constantly seen little babies on their 
mothers' backs literally coated with red mud. 
the poor little beggars looking far from happy. 

The hats worn are peculiar. They are made 
of plaited grass, flat or in the form of an in- 
verted saucer, terminating in a little pepper-pot 
of a crown, which is often adorned with the 
blue wing and tail feathers of a large crested 
plantain-eater, locally known as " pheasant," 
which is found in the mountains. 

Heavy anklets and bracelets about six inches 
wide, deftly woven together in alternate bands of 
colour, are worn — red, yellow, and blue being 
the most favoured colours. These ornaments 
sometimes consist of a very small, pointed 
land shell, treated in the same way as the beads. 
These show rank in the wearer. This shell is 
much prized. It is found in the southern por- 
tion of the island, and before the introduction 



tracks, made greasy by the dripping trees. The 
rainy season was not yet over, and showers 
succeeded by heavy mists obscured and en- 
veloped everything. It was hopeless to try and 
keep dry. Our boots soon became mere pulp, 
from which the water oozed at every step ; water 
ran from our clothes ; and it was with the 
greatest difficulty that we were able to keep our 
cartridges fit to use in the small guns which 
we carried for collecting specimens by the way. 
Occasionally as we turned the bends of the 
twisting track we came upon parties of young 
native girls. As soon as they caught sight of us 
they dropped their baskets of yams and rushed 
into the bush, crouching there, panting like 
timid dogs. Nothing would induce them to 
come back until our column had passed. Two 
white men armed with guns and heading a long 
column of carriers proved an extraordinary 




From a] 



BOOBIES ON A FETE DAY. 



of trade goods was the current coin amongst 
them, just as the cowrie is among the natives 
on the West Coast. 

In character these natives are unamiable and 
distrustful, and are veritable Shylocks regarding 
property. A present or " dash " of a fowl to the 
white man is looked upon as good for twice its 
value in return, and nothing will induce them to 
think that they are not being robbed by you, 
while sinister motives are always put upon your 
actions. 

At Rebola, on the northern coast of the 
island, we met with our first difficulty at the 
hands of these curious people. It was after a 
tiring march through the thick bush, the whole 
way slipping and stumbling along the narrow 






spectacle to them, and quite 
enough to frighten them out of 
their wits. 

Towards sundown we arrived 
at the village of Rebola, which, 
like the majority, consisted of huts scattered 
among plantations of yams. These villages 
are situated just on the borders of the culti- 
vated portions, sloping gently to the sea, and 
the forest hills, beyond which no habitations 
are found. These villages ire connected by a 
main " Boobie track," from which emanate 
many smaller ones leading into the forest hills, 
and made use of only by the native hunters. 
The huts are oblong in shape and not more than 
five feet high, with low roofs made of palm leaves, 






1111 WIDE WOR] l> MAGAZINE. 



hewn sli 

! ntrances 

md th( in rally 

lown after them a 

ne principle as the 

as two families 

all hut. Their dirt is 

m. it ever, 

\ i a rough wooden 

ring tied round the 

I the left arm. is used to scrape 

s. ( >nce a year just 

great pilgrimage is made 

( ing, and drinking are 

. then all. both old and 

i to the water's edge for their 

I depart again to their huts 

!• > a kind o\ fete day amoi 

graph on the preceding page 

h an occasion. Their straw 

with monkey skins, surmounted 

rsof the crested plantain- 

[vantage of these occasions, 

ring down small quantities 

. which they exchange 

ir mm or tobacco. 

unexpected. We 

of the huts quite unfit for a 

so we pitched our tent close to 

of huts. This was the signal 

kelter of the owners into 

and bush. Mothers caught up 

ran. while the men stafed 

then tailed off like a string of geese 

.hbouring huts, jabbering all the way. 

is still an hour of daylight left, which 

s tin ;ii and make up the birds we 

• '••lained during the day. Amongst them 

our fr -a black weaver bird 

and this I named in 
rl Maxwell. 

Tall palm trees, with 

n, reared their trunks 

-urrounding our 

all mi and re< rossed the 

turbing the silence, 

gain be broken by the 

le, and then 

• out to catch a glimpse of 

ire bed- 

an uproar of fowls being 

nade it clear 

ted. Tins 

lunted upon 

I the next day. 

daylight broke, we 

pre] rations to move 

got rid of 

rowded r d our column, 



shouting and jabbering excitedly. Soon they 
began to tail off. however, and eventually left us, 
having quite made up their minds that we were 
making for the roast line. However, after being 
quit o( them, I doubled back and fortunately 
stumbled upon a track which led into the 
wooded hills, my object being to gain the 
Clarence Peak from this direction. 

After much hard work and climbing I reached 
an altitude of some three thousand feet and 
took possession of a small Boobie hut, evidently 
used by hunters. This came in convenient for 
my carriers, and a space close by was cleared 
for my tent. The whole of the next day we 
were at work and began to form the nucleus of 
our collection. U was by no means easy work, 
since we found the forest to be a perfect maze 
of small foot-tracks, many of them indistinct, 
but enough to make one lose one's way. These 
tracks are made by the Boobies, who are excel- 
lent hunters. Armed with their long Dane 
guns and cutlasses similar to those used by the 
natives on the West ('oast, they seek the 
wooded hills, cutting tracks as they go. Nothing 
comes amiss to them ; tree squirrels, small 
antelopes (duikers) -of which there are two 
kinds, one red and the other mouse-coloured — 
and monkeys are ail fair game. The most 
prized of all, however, is the tree dassie, which 
nothing will induce them to part with. The tree 
dassie is a peculiar brindle-brown-coloured 
animal, much like a large, long-haired guinea-pig 
to look at, with the tusks of a wild pig. Living 
in the tops of the palm trees, or in the leafy 
portions of forest trees, it looks comical, indeed, 
as it runs along the broad branches from one 
thick retreat to another. 

The Boobies are quick to discover its home. 
Every likely tree is scanned, and the least 
shaking of the leafy tops seldom escapes their 
keen sight. While one stays below with a cut- 
lass and Dane gun and a couple of native dogs 
another scales the tree in no time and violently 
shakes the dassie's home. Poor dassie falls with 
a great thud on to the ground and attempts 
to run, but the dogs keep it at bay. The 
next moment it is quickly dispatched with the 
cutlass. 

Hut let us return to our narrative. The 
Boobies soon got to know where we were, and a 
large number, headed by the King and Queen, 
appeared before our tent. A few could speak 
broken English, and they told us they did not 
want us to go up to the big hill — it was their 
me) country, and no good for a white 
man. We must come back with them, for if we 
stayed we should lose ourselves. They told my 
carriers of a big river "up there " — pointing to 
the mountain — and said that if they crossed it 



AMONG THE BOOBIES. 



ibi 



they would die. The West African native is 
always superstitious and susceptible to the in- 
fluence of " Ju-ju," and all their tales were 
believed ; so much so that, fearing desertions, I 
decided to return on the third day. Accord- 
ingly we evacuated our camp at daybreak, and 
were half-way down the hill when we were caught 
up by the Boobies, 
armed with Dane guns 
and cutlasses 

They talked excitedly. 
It soon became a howl- 
ing mob, and with no 
interpreter I found it 
impossible to under- 
stand them. Our pro- 
gress was slow. The 
carriers puffed and 
panted under their 
loads, and the Boobies, 
getting impatient, kept 
rushing ahead and dis- 
appearing into the thick 
bush. Fearing an am- 
bush, I had frequently 
to halt and send out 
one or two men as 
scouts. This kind of 
thing went on until 
we got within a mile 
of Sipopo, a collec- 
tion of houses belong- 
ing to a cocoa planter. 
Then the Boobies left 
us, melting away into 
the thick forest. 

The King, who 
was with them, is 

shown in the annexed photograph. His heavy 
bracelets and anklets consist of the small 
shell I have already alluded to, and denote 
his rank. His legs are covered with mud, 
which is also smeared over his shoulders so 
as to form a kind of tippet. A monkey-skin 
and some cock's feathers complete his equip- 
ment. 




THE KING OF THE BOOBIES. 

From a Photo. 



At Sipopo we collected for several days, thus 
giving a much-needed rest to our carriers. As 
soon as daylight came I and my collector used 
to start off with a couple of carriers along one 
of the native tracks into the bush. As a rule 
we obtained during the morning's trek about 
thirteen or fourteen specimens, and returned 

with them to camp, 
where we skinned and 
made them up during 
the afternoon, going out 
collecting again towards 
evening. At this rate we 
accounted for an average 
of eighteen to twenty 
birds a day. On one 
occasion, after following 
a track for nearly four 
hours, we were suddenly 
startled by a stampede 
in the bush, just like the 
noise a herd of sheep 
would make in getting 
through some obstacle. 
The next moment a 
weird howl of voices 
broke upon us, like the 
whines of many dogs, 
all in unison. A few 
steps farther on the 
path was littered with 
plantains. A party of 
frightened natives had 
evidently fled to their 
huts, which lay un- 
seen somewhere to our 
left. About an hour 
afterwards we again 
passed this spot on our return home. No one 
was visible, but, all the same, we w^ere followed. 
From time to time the reports of Dane guns 
rolled out behind us, but we saw no one. 

The Boobies, made bold by our retreat, 
followed us like an angry flock of geese, firing 
their guns at a respectful distance just to 
frighten us. 



(To be concluded,) 



Vol. xi.-2f. 



The BlocKade = Runners, 



\\\ Walter (.'.. Patterson, of Helena, Montana. 

oolies into the United States is forbidden under extremely heavy 
, . In this story Mr. Patterson narrates the tragic story of one 
who managed to run " Uncle Sam's blockade," only to be detected and 
deported when they deemed themselves safe. 




ilie labourers are barred 

entering the United States by 

.! enactment. Vet they 

ng. Bar the German 

s nl or the Russian or Italian 

fresh arrivals from 

Dualities would be hard to 

Chinaman comes in 

trg I3 helped 

n law -bi 

A 1. ilk with an 

1 

1 w i t h 
tion of 
■ . ' . 

their 
.- and su 

nd fail- 
id in t! 

■ rut the 
ark- 
able 

' linaman's 
by 
' lity. 

1 Irient 
■ 

1 am 

* 

unusual < 1 stial. 

ful. 

. the 

■ 

1 »rner of the 
ouver- 
lundrel 

- not in t 1 was 

Vould dev 




I'hoto. by If. 



the fact that the party were listed for Canada, 
that when he saw the official coming out to the 
vessel he hustled the chattering band into one 
of the "water-tights," or a refrigerating compart- 
ment. Unfortunately, this hiding-place proved 
to lie also air-tight. 

When well out to sea, upon releasing the 
( !hinese, four of them were found to have been 
smothered. This was inconsiderate on the part 
of the defunct, as they still had many taels in 

money sewed up in their 
blouses. There was yet 
the land-agent, a second 
shark in this speculative 
venture at blockade-run- 
ning, to receive his com- 
mission, and their prema- 
ture death was unfair to 
him. 

On the fifth day out the 
officer " below decks," in 
going his morning round 
of the steerage, stumbled, 
to his horror, upon the 
stark, lifeless bodies of two 
more of the Chinamen, 
hone - handled Oriental 
daggers still piercing their 
hearts. Across the dead 
men's brows were knife- 
outs in the forms of crude 
crosses, which told the 
frightened Mongolians still 
alive that these two rwere 
victims of the " High- 
binders'"* vengeance; and 
even the belligerent Ching 
had uttered no protest. 
He was well aware that the 
two victims must have been 
marked out, or " spotted," 
on shore, and then fol- 
lowed on shipboard by the 
'avengers," in the guise of coolie freight- 
llers, who assassinated and " branded " them 
at the first opportunity. 



RAIT TAKE N [I I III 
His CAP! 



- fun. 



Chinese si iety which has many adherents in the 

Western States i America, and which is said to have committed 
numberless crimes. — Ed. 



THE BLOCKADE-RUNNERS. 



163 



But Ching spoke in an awed whisper even 
when admitting this knowledge, such was his fear 
of the murderous " Highbinders." 

This foul deed reduced the emigrant band to 
eight ; three-sevenths of the land-shark's commis- 
sion had gone ruthlessly before the journey was 
fairly under way. 

The party reached Vancouver, however, with- 
out further accident ; and eight would-be 
American citizens were turned over there to the 
tender mercies of the aforesaid land-shark, Ching 
being in command, as a Chinee who " knew the 
ropes." 

Ching had, indeed, had prior experience in 
blockade-running, though not over this particular 
route. On his first trip he had used the certifi- 
cate of a brother who had preceded him, the 
latter having mailed his own certificate to Ching 
in Canton. 

This, of course, is frequently done ; a little 
matter like the certificate-holder's photograph 
accompanying the document being easily over- 
come by these clever Celestials, who claim to be 
the inventors of photography. 

Another method attempted to aid would-be 
emigrants known 
to Ching was the 
forging of entire 
certificates. The 
firm of Chinese 
printers who tried 
this plan, however, 
overleaped them- 
selves. They ran 
off several hun- 
dred copies in 
exact imitation of 
a genuine certifi- 
cate, but from 
ignorance of the 
English languag 
every holder of 
one of the spurious 
passports was de- 
scribed therein as 
" five feet six and 
one half; a mole 
in the outer edge 
of the right eye- 
brow, and two 
front teeth miss- 
ing," the indi- 
vidual's name and 
his photograph 
being the only 
things changed. 
After a dozen or 
so emigrants had 
passed in under 



this description, the Commissioners began to 
doubt there being more of that particular 
kind who were genuine. The next dozen who 
presented these cards were promptly deported ; 
and the dishonest printers sought advice as to 
what was wrong with their English. 

Among other things Ching had learnt from 
experience was knowledge of the rascality of the 
so-called "agents" who brought the coolies over. 
His first independent stand was made when the 
particular pair of beauties concerned in the land- 
ing of his party undertook to make Ching hand 
over to them the money of the six dead Chinese, 
which, they argued, was forfeited to themselves. 
One look, however, at Ching's powerful frame, 
one glance at the determined expression in his 
slanting eyes — helped out, perhaps, by the sight 
of an enormous old-fashioned Chinese pistol 
nearly two feet long, which he carried in his 
blouse and did not seem averse to display — 
cooled the insistence of the white men most re- 
markably. One of Ching's first business moves 
on reaching land, after this encounter with the 
agents, was the remitting of the money to the 
dead Chinamen's relatives in Canton. 




M^-^MV 



THE SIGHT OF AN ENORMOUS PISTOL COOLED THE INSISTENCE OF illK WHITE .MEN MOST REMARKABLY. 






nil: WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 



them at Vancouver for some 

on the western 

them : ■ ■ ise their 

had likewise 



■1. the 
.: away 
•\ hen they left China. 

the frontier 

much of their "easy money " 

he bonier around the 

5 had been recently 

at a dismal station in 

north 

ling 
them • uth and 

•ir 

. knew 

e neral 

nd they 

I hey 
their clients 

fterwards 

;ng. 
ais- 
un- 
scrupui 

their lives 
:he occ. 

mpt to 
ike off" - . Hi 
and 
par. 

. 

the 

fu 

.ion and 

>pulous city of the United States," 

.uth of Canada. 

inary risks: but he 

:iuch of the lurking perils in the trails 

rt and the unblazed mountain 

I that 
■ ' re I that route. 

11 i < on- 

tongui the 

ou allee 
ee l o muchee 

e, too i o much 

ost and 



And again the glint in Sau (Thing's eye and 
that small cannon he carried in his blouse for- 
bade argument. 

Suspe< ting treachery, Ching determined that 
their rascally white guide should stay with them 
until the little band was at least within sight of 
an inhabited section in the United States 
i r. and so he kept close beside that elusive 
individual when they left the cars at the wood- 
camj). A suspicious move of the agent toward 
the rear-car platform as the departing train 

stood caused a prompt 
> cannon and a few in- 
tense words of " pid- 



swept by 



unlimbering 



where 
of 



they 



Ching' 



his ■ 
i little 



CHINATOWN IS RAIDED 
TH REE TOPE DEPO RTED 

Immigration Agent Hampton With Force of Offi- 
cers Arrests Five Celestials Who Have Not 
Proper Credentials— One Arms With 
Pitchfork and Shows Fight. 



Thare was more excitement In China- 
town i Ms momlnf than has been 
<S«r.rfl is that quarter (or many e, d-iy 
*ad It was all on account of an unexpect- 
ed visit of Em migration Agent Hampton 
of Gr*at Falls and two Inspectors of 
Chinese. It was a wild scene, while It 
Im'.H and Ihf Chinamen scattered In all 
n». Aa a result of the raid four 
. j are now held In custody on 
-it* of being Illegally In the United 
States. The fifth, who was arrested, was 
raleaaed after examination before United 
Slates Oirnmlr: ;_n-2r P. P. Sterling'. The 
tsea are being considered this aft- 
ernoon. 
Agent Hampton had a narrow escape 
oat one of the Chinamen, 
for the lit it was armed with a large 
pitchfork with which he Intended to de- 
-r-self 
leaurcfcea 7-odgln« Honse. 
Mr Hampton d the city but 

' time and while strolling through 
to— quarter saw the large lodg- 
M next the- cty hall and getting 
Ms two Inspectors and Deputy United 
Marshal Charles K. Gage, began 
a search. TTiey entered the building un- 
expectedly and' » panic ensued among 
I ■' ■ man J. A- Mackey 
lanca of the officers 
sr.d * v err avenue of escape was guarded. 
Two China:! h f whom could 

■peak English, and clad> In the garments 
srhJta cot., several size* too ■ large 
foT tTifm, were found corcealed In one 



of the rooms and were promptly escorted 
to the city Jail alid placed In the "bridal 
chamber. Search was then made through 
cellars, attics and underground passages. 

Mr. Gage had taken a station at the 
south doorway and saw two Celestials 
peeping over the fence to ascertain If 
anyone was on guard. They were quick- 
ly waved hack, however, by a Chinam-m 
stationed In the street, and disappeared. 
Mr. Gage saw them and Boon Mr. Hamp- 
ton was on the trail. He Jumped the 
fence and found one of the men In a 
smell outhouse. It was some time toefore 
the other one was located. 

Threatened by Giant. 

Mr. Hampton descended a nabrow stair- 
way leading underground anu owing to 
the change from light to darkness, was 
unable to see anything for a brief period. 
He had almost reached the bottom of the 
ladder when he saw a Chinaman at least 
six feet tall and armed with a. pitchfork. 
Whipping out his revolver Mr. Hampton 
commanded him to drop the weapon and 
follow him up the ladder, which he did. 
Only one more Chinaman was caught and 
th?n the entire crowd was taken before 
United States Commissioner If. P. Ster- 
ling, where the examination was con- 
ducted by; United States District Attor- 
ney Carl Raech and Mr. Hampton. One 
of the crowd showed his papeia and was 
released, but 6a u Ha Ching. Wong See 
Chu and Wong Chung had hearings be- 
fore Commissioner Sterling and were or- 
dered deported. The other will be given 
a hearing this afternoon. 



gin 
the 



l HELENA DAILY REO >RD DESCRIBING 

HA CHIN'U'S FIGHT AN!) CAM 






. 






talk which warned 
white man that 
upon a second attempt 
of the kind he would 
find himself shot full 
of holes and diffused 
over the landscape — a 
feat which the weapon 
seemed thoroughly 
capable of performing. 
Then, with an un- 
easy glance across the 
broad plain southward 
■ — an almost limitless 
stretch of sand, rocks, 
and sage-brush, fringed 
in the purple distance 
by the first range of 
the Rocky Mountains 
of Montana — the 
guide struck out in no 
amiable mood to brave 
the countless dangers 
he knew lay before 
him. Following him, 
the packs on their 
backs well stored with 
provisions suitable for 
the long journey, and 
all chattering excitedly 
except Ching, were the 
eight Chinese blockade-runners. 

Ching himself, watchful and grim-visaged, 
kept close to the white man. Barring the 
suffering which, despite their roaring sage-brush 
fir.-, they endured from the chilly blasts, this 
first night passed uneventfully. An occasional 
gaunt and hunger-crazed band of prowling 
coyotes or fierce wolves came as close as they 
dared to the fire, and then sat back on their 
haunches and announced their discomfiture 
in prolonged howling, but the coolies soon grew 
accustomed to this. 

( Ihing never once 
his vigilant watch on 



during the 
the unwillini 



night 



relaxed 
escort, the 



T H E BLOC K ADE - R U X X E RS. 



•65 



"agent." He figured that he could make up 
his lack of sleep after the party were about three 
days farther along. By then the white man 
would have less to gain by deserting, as many of 
the dangers would be in the rear of them ; and, 
for the same reason, they would care less them- 
selves for his companionship. 

Early upon the morning of the second day 
the little party espied in the clear air two 
Canadian Mounted Frontier Police distant 
three or four miles. At a word from the guide 
the Chinamen fell fiat on their faces, which 
position they maintained until the horsemen 
disappeared over the horizon. It was the 
danger of meeting these vigilant range-riders - 
officials on the look - out for contraband 
Chinese smugglers or Customs evaders of any 
description — which filled the white man's breast 
(an undoubtedly cowardly 
breast) with apprehension. 
Twice more the same day 
glimpses were caught of 
these riders at a safe dis- 
tance, the same tactics 
being pursued by the 
refugees to keep out of 
their sight. 

Then, late in the after- 
noon, two of the mounted 
police appeared suddenly, 
coming into view unex- 
pectedly over a small 
ridge, scarcely a half-mile 
away on the plain, and 
this time the fugitives were 
caught sight of. 

The first impulse of the 
white man had been to 
run towards the horsemen 
with the intention of 
escaping, purposing to tell 
the officers a harped-up 
story about his being a 
prisoner in the hands of 
the Chinamen; but 
straightway, with ready in- 
tuition of the coward's 
intention, Ching got be- 
tween the rascal and the horsemen, 
pressed the muzzle of his big pistol 
in the small of that individual's back, 
and forced him to " set the pace " on 
a run for sate cover. With the loss of 
part of the men's packs, and with 
them a large part of their food supply, 
the little band managed once more 
to evade capture by rushing pell-mell 
down the steep banks of a coulee. Here 
they separated and hid themselves 



behind large rocks and in patches of thick 
willows, Ching taking care of the guide, the 
baby cannon supplying the place of all argument. 
A score of times the two horsemen, having 
dismounted, passed within a few steps of some 
one of the men — upon one occasion actually 
stepping on the toe of a hiding Chinaman's felt 
"boat" without knowing it — but they failed to 
discover them, though darkness supervened 
before they finally abandoned the search. 

After this incident the white guide became 
desperate to make his escape, knowing he had 
been plainly seen by the policemen, and that 
his presence with the Chinamen would be fully 
understood. 

During that night, "camp" having been 
made at the foot of the same ravine they had 
hidden in. Ching, overcome with a fatmue he 



K 




THE LITTLE BAND MANAGED TO EVADE CAI-TURE BY RUSHING PELL-MELL 
PQWN THE BANKS OF A COULEE." 






THE WIDE WoRl 1> MAGAZINE. 



p, onlj 
that lie 

1 le find the white man 

':iim ; 1 llumined in 

fiendish 

I grasped in 
guide, felt a heavy 
• of hempen ro] - 
li :ed thai he was 

:it lie 
• 
vine 
r in i i 

lirty- 

had 

runn 

had fallen 
ff in a 

■ 

•mined 

i that 
had hut to rid 

• f this 

hite 
the 

this 

hurl him < 

|< 

• rei enl his 

nward in a 

•mi to his 

old, with a 

his 

the 

the 




THE WHn HtNfi TO Till . 

LIFF." 



At i moment when his every effort was being 
strained to its utmost to do a cowardly and 
despicable murder he had met his own well- 
merited doom instead. Call it a simple coinci- 
dence, an accident, an act of Providence, what 
you will, the fact remains that a foul deed had 
been prevented in the very second of its culmi- 
nation. 1 ven the Chinamen were awed by it. 

Though freed from their human enemy the 
next few days in the yellow men's tramp wit- 
nessed a constant succession of hardships and 

perils. A storm 
«n came up on that 
second night, 
ushered in by bril- 
liant lightning- 
Hashes, and in this 
frightful blizzard 
two of the thinly- 
clad Chinamen 
perished, being 
virtually frozen to 
death. Bright, 
warm spells in the 
daytime were some 
compensation, yet 
they scarcely served 
to drive the chill 
out of the bodies 
of the survivors. 

Then came two 
days of almost 
aimless wandering 
—worse than aim- 
less, for at the end 
of thirty-six hours 
the little band 
brought up at the 
very same canyon 
they had left, hav- 
ing been altogether 
off their proper 
trail and wandering 
over the plains in 
a circle. Without 
a guide, alone on a 
plain of never- 
varying clumps of 
sage - brush and 
heaps of sand 
reaching northward for two thousand miles and 
a thousand miles laterally, it is not strange that 
these ignorant travellers lost their way. 

Nexl came two days of scant fare, a mouthful 
of raw rice each comprising the final meal, 
after which followed two other days with 
food at all. 

In their extremity they ran down, killed, and 
ate a number of the little prairie rodents known 



no 



THE BLOCKADE -RUNNERS. 



167 



as "gophers." Weak as they were, and half- 
blinded by the fierce sun-glare on the sand, they 
would start now and again to chase shadowy 
mirage visions, keeping up the insane though 
weak-kneed race until they fell on their faces 
exhausted. No one who has not been lost in 
the desert, deprived for days of all food save 
reptiles and the small animals — which in his 
weakened condition would soon be too fleet for 
him to catch — can form any idea- of the horrors 
of the experience. Such water as is chanced 
upon in the little streams and pools, too, is so 
strongly alkaline as to be a mere aggravation of 
the wanderer's intense sufferings. 

At one time the starving band even attempted 



in amongst the Chinamen, who were then lying 
exhausted upon the ground, and again it was 
Ching who drove them off. 

Then, after many hours' repetition of these 
horrors and unspeakable sufferings, a providential 
sight was caught ahead — two white men en- 
camped on the plain ! The spectacle infused 
new life into the almost dead fugitives, and after 
hanging round the camp for sometime — for past 
experience with white men had rendered them 
cautious — they finally made friends with the 
strangers, the hospitable whites sharing their food 
with the famished Celestials. 

The two travellers were Swedes, and were on 
their way to Helena. They took pity on the 




EVEN THE COYOTES AND 1KA1RIE WOLVES BEGAN TO GROW OVERBOl D. 



to chew the bitter sage leaves. They would 
gladly have eaten the rattlesnakes which they 
saw had they had strength left to catch and 
kill them. 

Finally, so weak did they get that they could 
do no more than drag their emaciated frames 
across the plain. Often they stumbled and' fell. 
Ching, the one who had kept his strength longest, 
had great difficulty in preventing some one of 
the poor wretches from lying down and refusing 
to get up. Even the coyotes and prairie wolves 
began to grow overbold, seeming to know that 
a speedy end was at hand, and toward nightfall 
several great grey brutes, their jaws wide apart 
showing their gleaming fangs, actually bounded 



poor, starving Chinamen, and next day — regard- 
less of the risk they ran of being arrested as 
blockade-runners — they took the little band on 
to a place called Havre, where one of the coolies 
was left in hospital. Two others elected to re- 
main in the town, but three — including Ching — 
accompanied the white men to Helena, where 
they parted company. 

It seems that they spent five days among their 
compatriots of Chinatown in Helena, and then 
misfortune again befell them. Emigration Agent 
Hampton and two Inspectors of Chinese raided 
the quarter in search of " suspects," and five 
" uncertified " Celestials were rounded up. Poor 
Sau Ha Ching and his companions were among 






PHE WIDE W0R1 D MAGAZINE. 




D FIGHT WITH A PITCHFORK. 

I at the thought of arrest and 

ill that he had gone through, 

ght 

■ 

and made 

I r in 

the day he, with 

I 

id it 

■ 



plains and rough mountain trails 
which lead down from Canada, 
mounted police and vigilant immi- 
gration officials notwithstanding. 
But the Dominion's new emigration 
law will soon put an end to the un- 
welcome emigrants' even landing on 
( 'anadian soil. 

And so we take leave of poor 
Ching and his heartbroken fellow- 
countrymen cooped up in the 
Helena gaol, bemoaning that hard 
luck which has for ever made futile 
their vision of prosperity, as the 
proud proprietors of back alley wash- 
houses in some American town — 
ultimately to return triumphantly to 
their native land as rich men, there 
to be welcomed by some dusky- 
cheeked maiden whose eyes shall be 
set at that exact and bewitching slant 
essential to John Chinaman's ideal 
of piquant beauty. 

From this miserable cell these 
poor emigrants, who ask of Uncle 
Sam nothing but the privilege of 
toiling at work which the white 
labourer scorns to perform, will 
be deported — forced back to the 
Orient, whence American rascals 
lured them, robbed of even the little 
pittance a life of previous deprivation 
had enabled them to save. 

I am no believer in cheap Chinese 
labour. I am much less a believer 
in the Celestials being imposed upon 
in such a rascally fashion. For the 
matter of that, Uncle Sam and his Chinese Com- 
missioners feel as I do. But what's to be done? 







HELENA, WHERE CHI 4RRESTKI) BY EMIGRATION AGENT HAMPTON. 

/■'rem a Photo, by If. F.. Norris, Jun. 



The Wild Tribes of Sakhalin. 



By Charles H. Hawes, B.A. 
II. 

An adventurous expedition into the interior of the dreaded Island of Sakhalin. The natural 
difficulties of the journey were accentuated by the danger of attack by escaped convicts from 
the Russian settlements, who prowl about the forests, rendered desperate through persecution 

and starvation. 




HE natives are often very hard 
pressed, for they have to supply 
food not only for themselves, but 
for their dogs, and the bears which 
they capture when young and keep 
against the great religious festival, which I 
describe later. In the summer, it is true, the 
dogs find themselves in food by fishing like 
their masters, but they have to be fed in winter. 
A piece of salmon is regularly reserved for the 
animals, and in dividing the fish two slices are 
cut from either side for the masters' consump- 
tion, while the backbone, tail, and head, with 
the flesh clinging to them, are dried for feeding 
the dogs and bears. 

The bear plays the chief role among the wild 
animals on Sakhalin, and in olden times the 
sacrifice of Bruin must have been a religious 
festival, but now it has almost entirely lost its 
original significance, and has become merely a 
great fete. In those days, no doubt, a full- 
grown bear was caught, and the difficulty and 
danger of this probably enhanced its value as a 
sacrificial offering, but now an attempt is made to 
procure cubs and to rear them for the purpose. 

On our way back from the Okhotsk Sea we 
came to the village of Ado Tim, where we 
found great native rejoicings, for the Gilyaks had 
had a successful bear-hunt two days before. One 
of them solemnly told me that when the hunters 
came upon a she-bear with two cubs, and 
began the chase, the dam said to the cubs, 
" You run up that tree," which they did as soon 
as the mother was shot. One of the natives, 
more daring than the rest, at once followed with 
a seal-thong noose, lassoed one of the cubs, 
and descending pulled the noose tight, compel- 
ling the poor little beast by degrees to climb 
down the trunk. 

In late winter Bruin is hunted for his fur and 

* The full account of Mr. Hawes's recent travels will be published 
by Messrs. Harper Bros, in his work, " The Uttermost East." 
Vol. xii.-22. 



flesh, and is by nc means an easy capture. When 
he first emerges from his cave after his long 
winter sleep, somewhat dazed, the hunters' aim 
is to worry and harass him, and so to weaken him 
by spear and arrow wounds that he shall fall an 
easy prey before he can come to close quarters 
with any one of his pursuers. Some of the party 
climb trees to be out of the bear's way, but occa- 
sionally one is felled by a blow from the great 
paw or crushed in the monster's embrace. It is 
when Bruin is weakened by loss of blood that 
there comes the opportunity of the spearman. 
He certainly takes his life in his hand. He must 
not show his spear, or even appear to thrust, for 
the animal is so wary a combatant that he will 
parry the thrust and crush his enemy. The 
hunter, therefore, stands right in the bear's 
path, and with the spear-shaft firmly planted on 
the ground and the blade hidden by his tunic, 
but pointed at the bear, he awaits the onrush of 
the animal. As the great creature falls upon 
him he slips aside with great agility, and Bruin 
is impaled. At the junction of the blade and 
shaft of the spear is a semi-circular piece of 
iron attached by a thong. I asked what was 
the use of this, and the natives said that 
Bruin was so cute that if impaled he would 
quickly push the spear right through him and 
rush after his assailant. 

When captured the cub is placed in a strong 
log cage, and our next picture shows one of 
these dens at the village of Kamarvo, on a lonely 
sand dune stretching along the north-eastern 
coast of Sakhalin. Here I had the good 
fortune to snap Bruin while he was being fed 
with fish. He had thrust his great paw 
through a hole, and was trying to clutch the 
fish held out to him, as I came on the scene 
with my camera. Above hangs a birch-bark 
basket . filled with water to quench his thirst. 
These brown bears are of enormous size, and 
are bigger the farther east and north one goes. 






IIIF WIDE WORLD MAC, A/INK. 




WITH FISH 



irraal specimen stands 

n feet on his hind 1 

- khalin ti si tear is not only 

. ii to th<- river to bathe, and 

-iitutional. but it must 

ment that he is tamed 

the contrary, he is ex< eed- 

e confinement. 

_ I arrived at the village of Irr 

one of our native oars- 

Vrmunka, who himself v reat hunter. 

b ir to be brought out 

'»ut was informed that 



there were not sufficient 
men-folk in the village to get 
him out. After some persua- 
sion, however, two cubs of 
tin age of three months 
were hauled out. They 
whirled and twisted, snarled 
and swore, and tried to tear 
us with their claws ; but, being 
held by men at the ends of 
thongs, it was possible to keep 
out of their reach. My inter- 
preter took a photograph of 
this proceeding, but it was 
then twilight, and the picture 
is not so clear as it might be ; 
so I reproduce a similar scene 
taken at Korsakovsk, in the 
extreme south of the island. 
Here the bear has been 
brought out by request of the 
Governor, who is visiting the 
settlement. Bruin is being held 
in check by a number of hairy 
Ainus. 
The bear festival is generally held in January. 
Invitations are sent round by the fortunate 
possessor of the four-year-old bear, and on the 
day appointed the animal is hauled out of the 
cage by means of a noose slipped over his head 
and one paw. He is then tied between two 
trees, and in some villages worried by the 
shooting of blunt arrows, as depicted on the 
next page. At the same time two dogs are 
strangled as a sacrifice. The Cham, or medicine- 
man, comes forward, and holding a pine-twig 
over its head exhorts the bear not to say any- 
thing unkind of his master to the Great Spirit, 



i ! hi: den. 







OR HIS CONSTITUTIONAL. 



[P/ioto. 



THE WILD TRIBES OF SAKHALIN. 



'7 



and recites the benefits that he has received at 
his hands — viz., the best water, the beautiful 
yukola (dried fish), and the walks and the baths 
and warm winter quarters that he has enjoyed. 
The Cham further explains to him that it is not 
his master that is about to kill him. In front of 
the bear is then placed a stake pointing to the 
east, the abode of the Great Spirit. 

The reason of this is quite clear to any 
ordinary Gilyak, who argues as follows : The bear 
is a Gilyak, but he is not a pious Gilyak ; he never 
makes offerings to 
the Great Spirit, 
the god of the 
mountains and 
forests. Whereas 
the Gilyak himself 
is most punctilious 
in his religious 
duties, and at the 
conclusion of every 
meal makes offer- 
ings of tobacco, 
brick tea, or fish, 
the bear is exceed- 
ingly remiss and 
never does any- 
thing of the sort. 
He is, therefore, 
a heathen, and 
cannot be ex- 
pected either to 
know where the 
Great Spirit lives 
or, in his unen- 
lightened state, to 
wish to go to him. 
They, therefore, 
indicate the direc- 
tion and rely on 
the spirits of the 
dogs, of whom on 
earth the bear was 
frightened, to hunt 
his spirit to the 
Great Spirit. 

The bear having been shot by a skilful archer, 
with loud cries of victory the Gilyaks rush for 
the dead beast and quickly strip off his skin. 
Cutting his body in pieces, each takes a small 
portion, but first of all the Cham cuts out the 
heart and, after dividing it, gives portions to the 
most honoured members of the clan. These 
are offered to the gods and then eaten, this 
ensuring to the eater success in the season's 
hunt. A big feast is then held and great 
rejoicings follow. Songs are sung of past heroes 
of the hunt, and the young men enter into 
contests. 




gIlyak archers worrying the 
Front a 



Though a very cheerful people, the Gilyaks 
seem to have few amusements. They play, 
however, a game of ball, at which they are 
seen disporting themselves in the next photo- 
graph. It resembles that played in Bur- 
mese villages, in which the ball has to be 
kept from touching the ground, and, while no 
one wins, all have opportunities of displaying 
their skill. 

They show some elementary artistic notions 
in crude carvings of bears, ducks, and other 

animals ; but per- 
haps the women 
display more in 
their needlework. 
Bone needles were 
used until the 
advent of an occa- 
sional Japanese 
j u n k , bringi ng 
ships' needles. 
These, not so long 
ago, were so valua- 
ble that they were 
the pi ice of a wife ! 
Instead of cotton, 
sewing is done 
generally with rein- 
deer hair taken 
from the mane. 

Fish - skin and 
seal- skin used in 
times past to be 
exclusively the 
material of their 
summer and winter 
clothing, and is so 
to a considerable 
extent even now. 

Having reached 
one day the village 
of Chaivo, where I 
heard there was a 
Cham, or medi- 
cine-man, I sent 
for him in the 
hopes of learning more than I could from the 
Gilyak "man in the street." After consider- 
able evasion he was induced to appear. 

It was evening as we (myself and interpreter) 
sat on the sand dune that divided the bay 
before us from the Okhotsk Sea, which was 
rolling in, in great booming breakers, through, a 
narrow strait hard by. A glorious sunset met 
our gaze westward ; angry masses of black cloud 
were fired by reddening rays as they gathered 
behind the distant blue mountains, to the foot 
of which stretched vast forests. 'Twas a Sunday 
evening, calm as an English village scene, but 



BEAR WITH BT.UNTED ARROWS. 

Photo. 






1111. wild WORLD MAGAZINE. 




I Photo. 



hov lit! B) what a gulf were we sepa- 

civilization ! n us and 

>.nd lay impenetrable forests, the home of 

.r and the escaped convict armed and 

: with starvation, forests that could be 

lays and days of punting up 

d by weeks of travel ere the 

I be reached, and, finally, the 

(tent of snow-bound Siberia to be 

ires of the villagers, attended 

thered closer round us as 

i and I talke.d of the Gilyak 

of their fathers, and the home 

tie natives, no doubt. 

the white men from a 

I want to know these thin 

rant of what was common 

laughing at them ? 

o, and to allay his 

m that I was a friend of the 

ry far-off land, 

his father or fatl 

ever told him anything about his 

■ the main- 
land lying he asked 
ns had , and why, 
1 in large villages and 
on and 
• brief, 
rtant pi ge and is 
.. itters, but 
- ■ ■ ■ scer- 
nt has I ing before 



he was taken ill, 
he waits until 
night descends, 
when he begins 
his operations in 
the semi-dark- 
ness of the hut, 
having previously 
driven out all 
unnecessary per 
sons. Placing 
on his head a 
band of birch- 
bark with rosette 
like pendants, 
he next sets 
three little cups 
containing food 
in the cor n e r 
of the hut, and 
near them two 
small figures 
bound back to 
back, one of a 
laughing man 
woman. If he 
the patient will 



and the other of a weeping 
has made up his mind that 
recover he artfully places the figure of the 
weeping woman opposite the cups of food. 
Then he begins to use his powers of exorcism, 
during which he whirls round the hut beating a 
tambourine, and gradually increasing his voice 
from a whisper to fearsome howls and screams. 
His wild springings and the flickering fire cause 
strange shadows to flit across the hut ; these, and 
the unintelligible sounds emitted, strike awe into 
the souls of the spectators. The evil spirit having 
been exorcised naturally prefers to go into the 
figure nearest the food, while the good spirit 
enters into that of the man with the laughing 
face. 

Next the Cham draws one of the cups near 
to the masculine figure, whereupon the two 
spirits begin to fight. Of course, the victory 
is with the stronger party — that is, to the good 
spirit. Then follow negotiations as to how 
much in the way of an offering the evil spirit 
will require to consent to entirely quit the sick 
man. 

" Put," I said to an elder sitting by, " if your 
child falls ill, and notwithstanding the Cham's 
efforts it die.,? " 

" Oh," said he, in his simple stoical faith, 
" we make offerings, and if the child recovers 
it is well, but if the spirit does not make it well 
it is good also." 

Our next picture shows a great Shaman among 
the Tungus on the mainland. This tribe I also 
found on Sakhalin. They were wilder than 



THE WILD TRIBES OF SAKHALIN. 



i73 




A GREAT SHAMAN, 1 >R MEDICINE-MAN, OF THE TUNGUS. 

From a Photo. 



he strikes his tambourine and summons an 
audience. Whirling around the lire, jangling 
his ornaments, banging the tambourine, he beats 
himself and howls until, his face disfigured and 
his whole appearance maniacal, he collapses on 
the floor of the hut. Here he is tended, and 
the next day is awaited his great revelation, 
whether it be as to the next season's catch of 
fish or how to avoid threatening misfortunes, or 
where lost articles may be found. 

The photograph below was taken in the depths 
of the forest, for only in very secret places do 
the natives place their dead. Space fails me to 
tell of the lying in state, of the Gilyak cortege of 
dogs, of the strange rites, and of the burning of 
the body. One day I had the good fortune to 
come upon a single coffin, which was merely a 
log hollowed out and placed upon two props. 
It was an Orochon grave, and underneath was 
a dog howling in the most pitiable and weird 
way, such as I have heard no other dogs do. I 
can quite understand the natives saying, as the 
chorus of the dogs' howls swell into a half- 
human wail at midnight, that they are greeting 
the spirits of Gilyak ancestors who are passing 
by. The photograph shows an important 
Tungus grave. The body is wrapped in birch- 
bark and placed on the staging out of the reach 
of wild animals. The next picture has peculiar 
interest, showing as it does the farthest spot 
north on the eastern coast of Sakhalin ever 
reached by white men. This is not a clearing, 
but a series of petroleum lakes. 

Besides the Gilyaks, Orochons, Tungus, and 



either the Gilyaks or the 
Orochons, and better 
hunters, too. Their skin 
tents were pitched in the 
recesses of the forest. 
The Gilyaks said of them 
that, to meet an escaped 
Russian convict, one man 
to one was dangerous, but 
to meet a hostile Tungus 
was certain death. 

The Shaman is cleverer 
and has far greater 
authority than any Cham 
on Sakhalin. It will be 
seen that around his waist 
is tied a short red canvas 
skirt hung all over with 
dangling, jangling odds 
and ends, scraps of iron, 
bells, and what are to 
them curios. Standing 
just inside his hut, in 
which grass is burning, 




From a] 



A NATIVE GRAVE IN THE DEPTHS OF THE FOREST. 



[Photo. 






THE WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 




Photo. 



Yakuts whom I have not 

in the south of 

and lives that race which is still an 

Ainus. They resemble 

i, the northernmost of the 

. though the reports of their 

■-. if applied to the Sakhalin 

ounted. Their 

wild _ us life, their 

g, and 

they fall an t asy 

iible for their 

I 

lcome addition to 

id they and their 

vouring it p 
n putrefied, while 
d to 

hies. 
I 

and l in trying to 

i r and 

hunt is also not with- 

photograph si. 
some of th< who ha 

ith the Jap.. 

ins for 
ures 

and lazier than 



the Gilyaks and Orochons. Their one claim to 
superiority is their knowledge of weaving, for 
they make a coarse cloth from nettle fibre. The 
women work very hard and age very quickly ; 
but we had the good fortune to meet one who 
was yet youthful, and the belle of the tribe. 




A GROUP OF SAKHALIN' AIMS. 



{Photo. 







By O. Bartlett. 

The author arrived at an Indian village just in time to learn the particulars of a tragedy. A strange 

black " devil " had taken up its residence in the village " tank " or reservoir, and had killed a woman 

and a dog. Mr. Bartlett undertook to rid the villagers of their unwelcome visitor, and finally succeeded 

in killing the " devil," which turned out to be a monstrous " mugger," or crocodile. 




WAS out shooting small game about 
five miles from Bargar, in India, 
one day, when, just as I was beating 
a paddy-field, I heard a commotion 
in a little village about a quarter of 
a mile away. By the screams and shouting I 
knew something very terrible must have hap- 
pened, so I left off shooting and ran over to 
see what was the matter. 

As I got near it became apparent that some- 
one had been killed, from the wailing cries of 
the women. When I came on the scene every- 
one was shouting and running about, gesticu- 
lating wildly. So I slackened my pace and 
approached very cautiously, for it occurred to 
me that some of the natives might be having a 
fight amongst themselves, in which case they 
would probably resent my interference. As I 
came out of the jungle, however, with my gun 
ready across my arm, an old man saw me and, 
shouting out " Barra sahib shikaree," came 
running towards me, salaaming profusely. When 



he got up to me he started jabbering away and 
pointing first to his leg and then to the village, 
while two or three other men and women who 
had run up with him also pointed to my gun and 
beckoned me to go with them. 

I could not properly understand what it was 
they wanted me to do, but made out enough to 
know they wished me to shoot something for 
them, so I went along with them, much to their 
joy. About thirty yards brought us to the scene 
of the tragedy which had caused the wailing. 
Lying on the ground in front of one of the huts 
was an old woman, quite dead. All the men, 
women, and children in the village were standing 
round, the men jabbering excitedly and the 
women and children crying and wailing, making 
a horrible din. I noticed that the left leg of the 
corpse had been torn right off by something, but 
there were no other marks of violence. Alter 
examining the body I looked round for the 
headman of the village, intending to find 
out how it had happened. An old, grey- 






l'HI WID1 WORLD MAGAZINE. 



H said that the 
had 
near the Milage 
hildren 
vv a big 
us nnuith jump 
r, whereupon the 
and told the 
•!. A lot o\ the men- 
Is to investigate, 
■. bubbles rising from 
• some time, but 
of the next 
gi rs had bathed and 
v water, they saw 
iman screaming, 
n up and saw her being 
tank by some "big 
Thi _!it her by the arms 

me beat at 

■ ■ vouid not let go, 

■ idually pulled 

1 inally it snapped the 

n into the tank, while the 

■ woman back to the 

It was evident, con- 

Iman, that the tank was 

vil." 

I v me the tank, and he 

go firsl 1 had no 

v -. er, as it was 

th. When I came to within 

e tank 1 stopped and, taking out 

my gun with a shell 

I knew <mall shot would 

vil '" which, I made 

ir crocodile of 

to the edge of the 

i ompanying natives 

1 a little way in rear. 

could see plainly 

pi the 

n all din i tions. 1 

' the track to 

out of the 

of him ; 

- 

.'lit'- dry. Next I 

d into the 

en a bubble 

would not show 

[I 

morrow. I 

and told the 

They 

I ild stay at the 

me out, 

afraid he 

.ally if ' 

back 



to Bargar for some tilings I required. So aftef 
,i drink ol milk I left them, promising to come 
early in the morning and try to kill the " devil" 
for them. 

1 started from Bargar next morning with my 
native hoy carrying my things. Besides my 
double-barrel, I had my sporting carbine, with 
explosive' bullets for big game. We reached the 
village about seven o'clock, and the headman — 
who seemed much relieved at our advent— gave 
us a hut to put our things in. My hoy could 
talk the native dialect, and as he also spoke 
English well I told him to ask the villagers if 
anything further had happened. It appeared 
that they had seen nothing more of the "devil," 
but were afraid to go near the tank to get water. 
Thereupon I offered to go with them, promising 
that if the "devil" appeared I would shoot him, 
but they one and all refused to go near the 
accursed spot. 

While the boy was preparing breakfast I took 
my carbine and went along the track to the 
tank, looking about very carefully, but could 
see no signs of the brute ; everything seemed as 
it was the night before. I therefore went back 
to the village again, where I found breakfast 
ready. After the meal I instructed the boy to 
bring my gun along, intending to go and watch 
the tank. He was not in the least afraid, as he 
had often been out shooting with me before, and 
I told him what I thought the "devil " was. As 
we went down to the tank the villagers followed 
us at a discreet distance, but when we came in 
sight of it they stopped and sat down on the 
track to watch us. The boy and myself went 
forward cautiously to the edge of the tank, but, 
seeing nothing, we hid in the jungle so that we 
could see the crocodile if he came out or showed 
himself anywhere in the water. 

An hour went slowly by, and then, as nothing 
happened, 1 told the boy we must try and 
entice him out, as he was probably asleep at 
the bottom. The question was how. I told 
the villagers they had better come down to 
the tank and draw water. If the beast came 
after them they were to run away and I would 
shoot him. But this they were afraid to do; so 
I bade them bring their chatties and I and my 
boy would fill them and try to get him out. 
They soon brought their chatties and put them 
down, and I told the boy to take them one by 
one and fill them, while I stood by with my 
carbine. He took one, and we went to the 
tank and he filled it and took it back, I watch- 
ing the water all the time. 

He had filled about half-a-dozen without 
mishap, when I thought I saw something black 
moving at the bottom of the tank and coming 
towards us ; there were also some bubbles on 



A FIGHT WITH A " MUGGER. 



177 



the surface. I shouted a warning to the boy, 
who was just going to dip another chattie in, for 
I knew the " mugger " could rush up and seize 
him before I could shoot. He jumped back, 
oil which the " mugger " came nearer and then 
stopped. I could not see him very well, but 
could tell he was a big fellow. 

And now the question was, how was I going 
to get him out ? It was far too dangerous to 
let my boy go near the water any more, so we 
must try some other method. I told the boy 
to ask the villagers if they had a small puppy 
dog in the village. A man immediately ran off 
and brought a little dog in his arms. I then 
sent the boy into the jungle with the dog, with 
instructions to make the little animal cry out. 
The crocodile, I knew, would have to come out 
close to where I was hiding, for the banks were 
too high for him to get out very easily anywhere 
else. As he. passed me I could give him an 
explosive bullet with the carbine, and before he 



grunting and squealing. All this time I was 
hidden in the bushes by the side of the tank, 
watching the " mugger," so that I could not see 
what they were doing up the track. But the 
squealing woke the crocodile up, for he came 
crawling very slowly nearer the edge. Mean- 
while the grunting and squealing came nearer 
and nearer, till I guessed it was only about ten 
yards from the tank. I had just turned my 
head to look for the pig when, with a rush and 
a splash, the crocodile came out. I jumped out 
of the bushes and saw the natives bolting wildly, 
tumbling over one another along the track, and 
yelling frantically. 

A big pig was trying to follow, squealing 
horribly ; but the crocodile had one of its hind 
legs in his jaws. Grabbing my gun, I ran up 
and then, dropping the gun, fired the carbine at 
the crocodile, aiming behind his fore leg. Then 
I picked up the gun again — only just in time, 
for the " mugger" had let go the pig and turned on 







//■ 



I FIRED THE CARlilNE A'l I l|r CROCODILE 



could get back to the tank the shell and buck- 
shot from my gun would be coming his way, for 
I felt sure he would take a lot of killing. 

The lad, however, could not make the dog 
cry out loud enough, so I called him back, for 
although the " mugger " had come a little nearer 
the edge he was still at the bottom. I next 
asked the villagers to get a pig, and two or three 
of them went off, and very soon I heard a lot of 

Vol. xii. — 23. 



me open-mouthed — and let drive the shell right 
down his throat. I only jumped back just in 
time to avoid his rush and the vicious sweep of 
his tail. I could see that both shots had taken 
effect and that he was feeling pretty sick, for he 
could not stand properly, and the blood was 
coming 'from his mouth in streams, but these 
awful brutes take a lot of killing, and he was 
far from dead yet. As he turned his head round 






[Hi; WIDE WOR] D MAGAZIN1 



red the buckshot, aiming 

With a kind of 

in, but this 

tting away, for 

terrible jaws he 

weep of lus tail 

At first 1 thought my 

and that I was done for, 

ting to sic him 

I was surprised, how- 

him making his way off, not I 

track to the village. 1 



me pass safely. Soon, however, he blundered 
out into the open against the village, and I 
slipped round him and got in front. Dropping 
my carbine again. 1 fired both barrels down his 
throat and then jumped back to the carbine 
and waited the result. The great brute stood 
stock still for a minute and then, opening his 
jaws to the fullest extent, rolled over with a 
gurgling kind of bellow. 
savagely for a moment and 
died. 

I looked all about, but could not see any 



He lashed his tail 
then lay down and 







HE KNOCKED ME CLEAN OVER WITH A SWEEP OK HIS TAIL. 



to my feet, and although my leg hurt me 

I knew it i broken, so, picking up my 

gun, I loaded them both as I 

line the "mugger." I soon came 

up to him, and then I could see what was the 

of his fore legs was broken and 

lot had blinded him, so that he did 

not km iat direction he was going. But, 

although he had lost his sight, he was still very 

! in front of him to 

his throat again, as he kept opening 

mouth and snapping his great jaws ; but I 

did the pi of another smack 

il and the path was too narrow to let 



thing of the villagers; not a soul was to be 
seen anywhere. I shouted to my boy and 
presently saw him coming along the track from 
the tank. He said that when the " mugger " came 
rushing out of the tank and seized the pig he 
had jumped into the bushes out of the way, and 
that everything since had happened so quickly 
he had no time to come and help me. After a 
lot of shouting we managed to get the scared 
villagers back again, and their joy at the death 
of the " devil " was good to see. They 
solemnly hacked him to pieces and burnt him, 
after which, there being nothing more to do, the 
boy and I went back to Bargar. 



The White Man's Luck. 

By J. C. Sparrow. 

The author went for a voyage to the Solomon Islands on board a schooner engaged in recruiting 
"boys" for the Queensland plantations. At one of the islands the natives had been badly treated 
by a previous ship, and they determined to take their revenge upon the new - comers. Then 

ensued a most exciting experience, which is here set forth. 




OU'D better take Ivens with you, 
as 'Cock Sparrow' wants to stay 
on board, not feeling very fit this 
morning," said Captain Shorthouse 
to the mate. 
Ivens was the carpenter of the schooner 
Black Bess, and I was " Cock Sparrow,'' other- 
wise John Cockerell Sparrow, a naturalist, and 
an old friend of the skipper. What brought 
me aboard the schooner was my desire to do a 
little exploring in the Solomon Islands in the 
interests of my pet science. The voyage of 
the Black Bess offered me a fine chance, and 
so I had shipped with my friend Shorthouse, 
intending to remain with him until his work 
was done, and then, on the homeward trip, to 
be put ashore at Aola, on the Island of Guadal- 
canal*, to be taken thence on his next voyage. 

It was towards the end of May when we 
reached the Island of Ysabel, where we were in 
hopes of doing a lively business. We were in 
the hiring trade for the Queensland plantations, 
but when we sailed into the little harbour where 
we were destined to have such a fight for life 
had only succeeded in getting two or three 
"boys." Captain Shorthouse remembered the 
pla^.e well from a visit he had paid it three years 
before, and quite expected to secure his full 
freight there. Something, however, had hap- 
pened in the meantime which had roused the 
hostility of the natives against the white man, 
and we, though perfectly innocent, were destined 
to feel the effects of their rage. 

This business of hiring is a peculiar one, and 
needs a word or two of explanation. The men, 
or " boys," as they are called, are hired for three 
years. A price is paid to the chief under whom 
they live to let them go ; they are then conveyed 
to Brisbane, or some other port, where they are 
hired out to planters at a certain wage per 
month. They are provided with European 
clothes and huts in which to live, and at the 
expiration of their period of service are carried 
back to the village from which they were 
originally hired. 

All this is now done in a much more regular 
manner than was formerly the case, the hiring 
being conducted under the direction of a 
Government agent, whose business it is to see 



that the natives are properly treated, and that 
they are duly returned to their native place 
when their time is up. But even with the best 
of schemes irregularities will sometimes occur, 
and this was particularly the case a few years 
ago in this traffic with the Solomon Islands. 
For instance, returning natives would be landed 
on the first island sighted instead of at their 
native village,' the result being that they were 
often murdered by the hostile inhabitants. 

The Solomon Islanders are a treacherous and 
bloodthirsty race, and war mercilessly one upon 
another, not merely for plunder, but for the 
sake of the bodies of their victims, they being 
addicted to cannibalism. Frequently villages 
but a few miles apart are thus at deadly feud 
with one another, and should a native of one 
village chance to be landed or find his way 
within the territory of another, it is twenty to 
one against his going out alive. 

It was an incident of this very nature that 
was the cause of all our trouble. Two years 
previously a vessel, after landing nearly sixty 
natives on the Island of Guadalcanar, found 
itself with a few left for the Island of Ysabel, 
which lies somewhat farther north and east, and 
either through ignorance or indifference one at 
least, a " boy " named Savu, was landed a few 
miles south of his native village. He was in 
consequence seized by a hostile tribe, killed, and 
eaten. 

This event, as already said, took place two 
years previous to our present voyage ; but it had 
not been forgotten by his fellow-tribesmen, and 
when they saw the Black Bess, the first ship 
that had in the meanwhile visited them, round 
ing the point that formed the southern boundary 
of their land-locked bay, they resolved that his 
death should be fully avenged. 

It was bright moonlight when we slid with 
the tide into the cup-like basin of Navaltu, as 
the natives called the bay, and cast anchor 
about a mile and a half from the curving pro- 
montory that formed the southern lip of the 
bay's mouth. After coffee in the morning 
Captain Shorthouse ordered the boats to be 
lowered in order that business might be com- 
menced as soon as possible. 

The hiring of the " boys " is gone about as 






rill. WIDE WORl n MAGAZINE. 



d to 

d ami ilo tin- 
I with the chiel or 
- to the 
. bottles, p 

given for 

■ boy " is taken 

. which lies a little 

. .nid ready, 

hostilities, to render 

! - ommanded by the 

iported by one 

. the remainder of the boat's 

I t is well armed, 

.vith rifles, which are hidden 

un the sidi 

left the ship's side 
at the end of the bay 
nth nat:-. - < ptain Shorthouse, who, 
■viih the strict rules of the set \ 

hed the boats 

He then a- eagerly 

the proceedings 

I to work. 

Mi I ik, our second mate, 

. and that his boat's crew con- 

■ natives. The first mate, Mr. 

•mmanded the covering boat, which 

I much own length from 

oing on. 
1 two sailors with 
him - one I lornishman, nan 

■ 

Otfk 

I 

that bi 

■ 

:T a 

■ 

lion. V. 
had 

■ 
and 

number I 
start/' o' 

Short- 



housi , .i^ he counted the hired men through 
his glass. 

•' It might be a bad sign if they were going to 
sit down to dinner, sir," said the cook. 

" True , but 1 should have preferred any 
other number," replied the skipper, who was 
inclined to be of a superstitious turn. 

Hie "boys" were fine, strapping fellows- 
models o( manly beauty so far as strength and 
shapeliness of limb were concerned ; but, judged 
by their physiognomies, they were as villainous 
i as you could pick up anywhere in the 
islands. 

They wore no clothing, with the exception of 
the usual loin-cloth. Many of them were 
tattooed, not only on the face, but on the breast 
and limbs. One of the number had on each 
side of his chest a rough representation of the 
frigate-bird, and we therefore christened him 
" Frigate Bird." from his bearing he gave one 
the idea of being a young chief. He wore a 
necklace of dogs' teeth, which is a favourite 
ornament all over the Solomon Islands. A 
complete necklace must contain five hundred 
t< eth, and, as two teeth only in a dog are avail- 
able, it is evident that they take some time to 
collect. 

Hach man carried on his shoulder a little bag. 
This serves in place of pockets, valise, or knap- 
sack, and will usually be found to contain a 
stick or two of tobacco, a dirty clay pipe, per- 
haps a box of matches, two or three areca nuts 
foi chewing, a little package of betel -pepper 




1 "I HA1 Bl SI NESS WAS IllUsK. 



THE WHITE MAN'S LICK. 



181 



leaves, and a neatly ornamented bamboo box 
for holding the lime used in chewing the betel. 
There may also be a pearl-shell scraper for 
scraping cocoanut, a cccoanut spoon for eating 
the paste or soup which forms common native 
dishes; also a pair of cockle-shells used as 
tweezers for pulling out superfluous hair. 
Without these impedimenta life to a Solomon 
Islander is not much worth living. 

After dinner and a short siesta the two boats 
rowed to land again and 
the business of hiring 
recommenced. They 
may have been gone an 
hour, or it may have 
been two, when, as I lay 
dozing in the captain's 
cabin, I suddenly heard 
a great commotion on 
deck. I could not think 
what it was ; but, as one 
gets used in these seas 
to taking every precau- 
tion, I seized a revolver 
and ran to the compan- 
ion-way. The cook — 
who, with two sailors 
and a native or two, was 
the only person left on 
board, with the exception 
of the captain and my- 
self and the newly-hired 
men — happened to be 
just ahead of me, and as 
I put my foot on the low- 
est step he was struck 
with a marling spike by 
a native and felled. He 
came head foremost on 
the top of me and 
knocked me down. As 
I lay groping in the 
semi - darkness for the 
revolver, which had 
dropped from my hand, 

I saw the native " Frigate-Bird " step on to the 
companion-way, followed by several others. 
Evidently they had seized this opportunity of 
capturing the schooner. 

Knowing that I had no chance unarmed 
against so many, I crept stealthily away and hid 
in the chain-locker. Panting with terror I 
awaited the result, feeling that I had not many 
minutes to live, and rapidly reflecting how I 
could sell my life most dearly. Suddenly I 
heard a fearful screaming. I knew that 
the two natives who had been left on board 
were asleep in the forecastle, for I had 
seen them there, and I felt only too sure that 




' ; HE CAME HEAD FOREMOST ON THE I'll' OF ME. 



the " boys " had discovered and were murder- 
ing them. 

My first impulse was to run to their assistance, 
but I immediately perceived how fruitless and 
even mad the attempt would be, and remained 
quiet. Then all became still, and I waited 
tremblingly for the next act in this awful drama. 
What would it be ? 

I could not doubt that the captain had 
been killed, together with such of the crew as 

were on board. When 
the commotion first 
began on deck I had 
heard several shots and 
one or two heavy splashes 
in the water. It was 
certain that both the 
skipper and his men 
would defend themselves 
as well as they could. 
But what could three 
men do against thirteen, 
and such demons as they 
appeared to be? 

I felt sure that I was 
the only one remaining 
alive of the whole of the 
ship's company left on 
board, and, as I have 
said, I waited in fear and 
trembling for the natives' 
next act, which I doubted 
not would be my own 
discovery and murder. 

I had not been long 
in hiding before one of 
the fiends came groping 
his way to where I was. 
Surely my end was now 
come, I thought. Help 
was not to be thought 
of ; escape was impos- 
sible. Suddenly, in the 
imminence of my peril, 
I reflected thai death 
sooner or later — that the 
-that it is best to face it 



comes to all of us 
pain must be brief 
like a man. 

At once I became preternaturally calm. My 
htart, which had been throbbing, as it appeared 
to me, like a church clock in the dead of night, 
fell to beating quite normally; and though one 
of the natives — it was " Frigate-Bird," I believe— 
was so near to me that I could have touched 
him with my hand, yet I was no more agitated 
than if I had been playing at hide-and-seek in an 
English garden. 

While the villain was thus near to me I heard 
a shot and then a shout. It was the boats 






THE WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 



Instantly tl 

id and a sound of 

away and I 

n. 1 now stole 

iddenly 

f dynamite 

vverin his cabin, 1 took 

them in my pocket. I then 

• impanion way and 

ar the natives palavering 

what to <.\o. 

.m\ 1 advanced up the 

s i the happiest 

my life struck me. Eying by the 

an iron stew pan, 

iad held in his hand when struck 

:i and killed. This I took up and put on 

a helmet, with the handle sticking out in 

horn. I don't know what I looked 

• I nol have appeared a beauty. 

stood near the companion, 




GAVF A VF.I.L OF DISMAY.' 

r ea' on the head anyone who came 

y thought, for, instead of hitting me 
with the marlii „,!< 

-an for. -ha terror and 

joined the rest Hi i of disma 

ind thus d all t! who 

rig in the 
direction of tl . t o turn 

suddenly jound and fa< 

The- .ere all so startled by my extra- 

ordinary- and unexpected apj ■ that they 

1 for a moment wondering — and that 



moment was their loss and my salvation. For 
instantly, with all my force, I threw one of my 
dynamite cartridges. My intention was to throw 
it tight in their midst, but it fell a little short, 
struck the deck in front of them, and exploded 
with such violence that it seemed to send them 
all Hying. They all certainly went into the 
water, some, 1 am inclined to think, hurled 
overboard by the force of the concussion, others 
impelled by their own terror. All that I know 
positively is that, half-stunned myself by the 
nation, I had a momentary vision of a mass 
of legs and arms flying in the air, and then, the 
instant after, I saw a rent in the deck as big as 
a harrow. 

I ran to the side of the schooner and 
saw the fellows struggling in the water. 
Some were already making towards the shore, 
but others seemed inclined to scramble on 
board again ; but my appearance caused them 
to make all speed to land. 

I was now able to 
consider the position 
of the boats, which 
were coming at full 
speed towards the 
ship, hotly pursued 
by a canoe manned 
by at least twenty 
natives. The boats 
were well ahead, but 
the canoe was gaining 
upon them hand over 
fist. It was a peril- 
ous position, and for 
a moment I thought 
all was lost. Then, 
still further to com- 
plicate matters, I sud- 
denly caught sight of 
Captain Shorthouse 
and the two sailors 
struggling in the gig 
with a single oar, 
some distance astern 
of the ship. I learnt 
afterwards that when 
the attack commenced, seeing the small chance 
they had against the thirteen natives, they had 
jumped overboard, swimmingto the captain's gig, 
which lay at the stern ready for any emergency, 
climbed into her and cut loose, apparently 
unobserved by the natives, who were so intent 
on killing all those on board that they took no 
further notice of the men they had driven over- 
board. 

The captain's first intention, thinking all was 
lost, had been to make for the mouth of the 
bay and so get out to sea ; but when he heard 



THE WHITE MANS LUCK. 



'S3 



the crash of the dynamite and saw the natives 
fly overboard he and his companions changed 
their minds and made for the schooner, but 
their pace, sculling with a single oar, was very 
slow. Their position put me in greater anxiety 
even than the peril of the other boats, because 
It seemed to me that, tremendous as was the 
pace of the canoe, the boats would reach the 
ship first, whereas the gig was making such slow 
progress that it was possible for the discomfited 
natives, who had now reached shore, to swim 
out again and intercept her. 

Then it was that the captain's presence of 
mind stood him, and indeed all of us, in good 
:stead. Calling out at the top of his voice, he 
bade me slip the anchor. Though I failed to 
see his aim, I obeyed, and the vessel imme- 
diately began to drift with the tide — which was 
just on the turn — towards the mouth of the bay. 

I thought at first this was imperilling the men 
in the boats, but I soon perceived that, though 
a slight advantage was given to the canoe by 
letting the schooner drift, it was not so much as 
to counterbalance the advantage we 



gained. 



No sooner had the captain's foot touched the 
deck than he called out to me to put the helm 
hard-a-port. This brought the ship broadside 
on, and so greatly stopped her "way." Then he 
made the men bring up a rifle apiece, and as he 
stood by my side, his hawk-like eye taking in 
the whole situation, he said, " It's the ' white 
man's luck' now, 'Cock,' or we are done for." 

The boats were now so near that the captain's 
stentorian voice could reach them, and he cried 
out, " Give way, lads ! Another pull and you 
are right." 

The cheering words encouraged then), and 
both crews put their backs into the work with a 
will. 

Shorthouse now turned to me and said, 
" Now, Sparrow, they are within range. Give 
them a shot ! " 

I at once did so, and a paddle was instantly 
dropped. Then another and another followed 
suit, and the game was practically up. The 
speed of the canoe fell off and the boats shot 
ahead. Then first one and then the other ran 
alongside, and their crews sprang on board. 




I GAVE THE) 



•I SAL SHOT. 



For every moment brought the schooner nearer 
to the gig and so lessened the danger of the 
captain and the two sailors, whilst it increased 
our chances of effectually helping the others 
when the critical moment arrived. 

I did not let the craft go wildly, of course, 
but kept her well in hand, so that she drifted 
closer and closer to the boat, and in a very few 
minutes' time the three men were on board. 



At the same moment the schooner's head was 
brought round, the main sheet was let out, and, 
as she began to feel the wind, we felt that the 
traditional "white man's luck' 1 had not left 
us yet. 

The canoe still followed, though with con- 
siderably less spirit, and when I gave them a 
final shot, which caused the headman, seated 
in the" stern, to drop his spear, all the paddles 






nir wide WOR] n magazine. 



then, after a minute's 

and. 

ten our enemies 

i in p< Such 

k, however ; for no 

• taken place on 

number o\ armed men 

thers and dive into 

• that point. 



cannot say, but it was soon evident that the 
savages did not appreciate their reception, and 
one after another quickly tailed off and 
scrambled back to land. One only reached 
the ship's side and made a vain effort to get on 
bond ; but Ivens, the big Cornishman, hit him 
on the head with the butt of his rifle, and then, 
as tin poor wretch rolled over and dropped his 
spear, the boatswain, lying down at the gang- 




iATSWAIN IIAl'I.F.I) HIM AI'.OARD. 



. divine the game that 
v to the fore ; but we were not long left 
in dc 

of the passage out of the bay was 

r narrow, and as we approached it Captain 

suddenly impressed with the 

that the men who had gone into the wood 

had this point, with the intention of 

It was a shrewd guess, for 

' ' nething like twenty men 

jumped inl water and swam towards us, 

I and hurled spears at 

r as we could 

. firing at the swimmers. 

lr shots took effect or not I 



way, reached out and hauled him aboa d by the 
hair of his head. 

It proved to be " Frigate-Bird," the leader of 
the band who had attempted to seize the ship. 
Although stunned he was not much hurt, and 
came round after we had got to sea. The 
young chief proved to be a great acquisition, 
'lamed by his defeat and by the kindness which 
was shown towards him until he got well, he 
helped us a great deal in our efforts to get a full 
hiring, and as a reward was placed with a good 
master when the Black Bess reached Brisbane. 

Thus the " white man's luck " saved us 
from as deadly a peril as perhaps a ship's crew 
was ever in. 



My Visit To Tfrs Ameer of Bokhara. 

By Lieutenant Olufsen, Leader of the Danish Pamir Expedition. 

The author describes the visit paid by the members of his expedition to the Ameer of Bokhara. His 

Highness received them most graciously, placed a palace in the capital at their disposal, and took care 

that they should see all the curious sights of this most picturesque of Eastern cities. Lieutenant Olufsen 

illustrates his article with some interesting photographs of scenes in Bokhara. 




MADE my entry into Bokhara in 
the middle of July, when the real, 
baking summer of Central Asia had 
already completely dried up all the 
moisture from the roadways and 
steppes. Clouds of fine dust ascended with the 
hot air as if by suction, covering the vineyards, 
the apricot and mulberry plantations — every- 
thing, in fact — with a thick yellow layer. 

Bokhara, the ancient capital of Trans-Oxenia, 
is now a centre of Mohammedan fanaticism, as 
in the pre-Islamite era it was one of the prin- 
cipal strongholds of the Parsee religion, the 
religion of light. Bokhara is literally a land of 
light, where in the summer the all-consuming sun 
destroys every kind of vegetation that is not 
sustained by artificial watering. At the same time 
it calls forth a luxurious herbage of mushroom 
growth in the well-watered and fever-smitten oasis. 

After a trying 
journey across step- 
pes and deserts, in 
the overheated 
and terribly dusty 
carriages of the 
Trans-Caspian Rail- 
way, we at last arrived 
at the railway station 
of New Bokhara, a 
Russian town, which 
is about seven miles 
distant from Old 
Bokhara, the capital 
of Russia's most im- 
portant vassal, the 
Ameer of Bokhara. 

Round the station, 
which is built in the 
style of an Oriental 
villa and painted 
white, a large crowd 
had assembled. 
There were natives 
in gorgeous and pic- 
turesque dresses, 
wearing rich white, 
red, and blue tur- 
bans, some of them 
with silver-mounted 
curved swords, sis- 

IT . .. > O 

Vol. xii.— 24. 




From a] 



HIS HIGHNESS THE AMEER OF BOKHARA. 



nifying that they were native Government 
officials or officers ; Russian functionaries in all 
kinds of uniforms ; merchants in light summer 
attire with sun-hats ; fruit vendors and all sorts 
of odds and ends of Oriental humanity. Russian 
and native cabs were everywhere, and everything 
seemed in utter confusion. 

From the station we drove straight to the 
house of the Russian agent, who lives at New 
Bokhara, and who had arranged for us an 
audience with the Ameer. For sundry reasons 
the Ameer never lives at Bokhara, but at Ker- 
mineh, east of the city. 

A train conveyed us from New Bokhara to 
Kermineh, where we spent the night at the 
small primitive station. The next morning, at 
six o'clock, we were fetched in the Ameer's 
carriages — up-to-date Russian conveyances, to 
which the drivers, in their many-coloured kaftans 

and white turbans, 
formed a peculiar 
contrast. The sec- 
retary and the drago- 
man of the Russian 
political agent ac- 
companied us as in- 
terpreters, and the 
equipages were sur- 
rounded by an escort 
of mounted Mussul- 
mans, wearing elabo- 
rate silk kaftans, with 
silver-mounted belts 
and costly swords. 
We drove at full 
gallop over the sun- 
scorched steppes to 
the town of Ker- 
mineh, of which we 
could see the mina- 
rets and domes of 
glazed blue and yel- 
low tiles gleaming in 
the distance above 
the compact mass of 
yellowish - grey clay 
houses. 

It blew pretty 

hard, and the fine 

ypiwto. dust dealt very un- 






rilK WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 



- • forms, c< mpletely 

. who simply looked 

rushing across the 

lied the town the 

which were surrounded 

re received by 

on magnificent black 

An i - master of the 

servant, had 

: the Ameer. 

red silk kaftan, round 

led with precious 

He held a wl ■ in his hand. 

f the ceremonies took us 
narrow streets and 
filled with people, who inter- 
watch our procession. 
>tle or stronghold 
i with ay walls, the so-called 

Ameer. Our carriages 
in the outer courtyard, and then, 
the ceremonies, we 
apartment strewn 
meal, served by a number of 
- on various tables. 
it dishes, pillafs, and 
- it, and tea. 
I an assembly of gaily-attired 
I with us. They had been in 
rly morning, the Ami er being an 
nd fond of holding his receptions 

n proceeding for half 
I vo 

I vet 

cur- 

; iro- 

i with 

the 

had 

the 



We had only gone a few steps when we were 
startled by sharp words of command, which 
emanated from a recess in the wall, where a 
native guard of honour, in red skin-trousers, 
black coats, and tall, black fur caps, were 
drawn up, presenting arms as we passed. 

Having gone through several narrow, round- 
about passages, we presently reached an open 
square, where a number of Circassians in 
Caucasian attire formed a kind of body-guard, 
their swords drawn, in front of an open door, 
through which, by stooping considerably, we 
passed into a cool and beautiful garden. The 
roses and the large blue iris were in full bloom, 
and between the flower-beds were small canals, 
the picturesque scene being overshadowed by 
tall acacias. In a corner of the garden was a 
small palace, the abode of the successors of 
the Grand Sultans, and which only differed 
from the other clay houses by it's large glass 
windows and a high flight of steps, upon which 
were spread some splendid Turcoman rugs. 

At the foot of the steps the Ministers bowed 
to the ground. Through the open door we 
could see the Ameer sitting on his gilt chair. 
He wore a dark-red velvet kaftan, with the 
distinctions of a Russian General, and his breast 
was covered with liokharan and foreign Orders 
in brilliants. The room was plain enough ; the 
floor was covered with rugs, and some swords 
and daggers adorned the white walls. 

The Ameer rose when we entered, and asked 
us to be seated on some chairs, which had been 




THE AMEER'S GILT THRONE. 



\Pkoto* 



MY VISIT TO THE AMEER OF BOKHARA. 



187 



specially placed there for the occasion. He 
bade us welcome in flowery language, and in- 
numerable questions were exchanged between 
the Ameer and ourselves about his and our 
state of health, coupled with a corresponding 
number of good wishes as to his and our future. 
This is the custom in these parts. The Ameer 
is a middle-aged man, big and corpulent, and 
very typical of his people, but his pale face and 
dull eyes betray but little energy and initiative. 

When I asked one of the courtiers how the 
Ameer spent his time I was informed he had 
plenty to do with giving orders to his Governors, 
as the country, so far as internal affairs are con- 
cerned, is independent of Russia — on paper, at 
least. His Highness, unfortunately, suffered 
from sleeplessness, and often sat up till very 
late, the Ministers, of course, having to remain 
with him. At such times the Ameer generally 
placed them in a circle round him on the floor, 
where they had to while away their ruler's weary 
hours of wakefulness by telling fairy-tales and 
droll anecdotes. If any one of the luckless 
courtiers grew sleepy and began to nod the 
Ameer promptly knocked him on the head with 
his stick. When the Ameer had at last grown 
tired of their stories he and all the dignitaries 
present took pans and set to work to see who 



way of meals and processions. We were now 
the Ameer's guests as long as we chose to 
remain at Bokhara, and a small palace, with 
servants, carriages, etc., was placed at our dis- 
posal in Old Bokhara, which is, perhaps, the 
most original and un-European town in all Asia. 
We lived entirely at the Ameer's expense ; 
several of his courtiers were told off to show 
us all the sights of the city which are open for 
the guests of the Ameer ; and, to crown all, we 
received presents on departing. 

According to Bokharan etiquette, the first 
thing to be done after an audience with the 
Ameer is to announce one's intention of call- 
ing upon his Prime Minister, and as soon as 
we had returned to New Bokhara a messenger 
on horseback was dispatched in order to give 
notice of our forthcoming call upon this official 
at the residential palace of Old Bokhara. A 
similar procession to the one of the morning 
was formed, and we proceeded along a broad, 
well-kept road to the ancient city. En route 
we met a number of highly interesting and 
characteristic types — men in many- coloured 
kaftans ; women with close horsehair veils over 
their faces and blue -striped capes drawn up 
over their heads, making them look like wander- 
ing ghosts ; Kirghizes, with their caravans of 



s> ^^^^s.^kca»iMks^^1 




SiT - nirr li'iiagmM^^^ 



could make the best pillaf — surely a curious 
occupation for a ruler and his Ministers ! 

After the audience there were the same pro- 
ceedings to be gone through as before in the 



camels and dromedaries; long strings of native 
vehicles, the so-called arboes, with their 
immensely high wheels ; and any number of 
people on donkeys. 






rill WIDE Wokl.h MAGAZINE. 



..':i wall, with its round towers 

ts, whic inds the whole city, 

ials met us in 

ing. We then 

i the towers 

ificant-looking 

,iid, up till but a few 

re hung and tormented to 

th the old wall, which 

nany a , and outside which 

3 dlowed without a special 

i n night, at which hour 

d. We then entered a number 

iui carriages only made 

th difficulty between a multitude of 

nd camel, dromedary, and donkey 

itil we reached the Rigistan Square, 







-i I'lioto. 



•he not - sru H a h j n |,j s 

'i Embassy to carry on 
'h his chi< k, whilst he 

ear-path in Turkestan. 
tands the old [ • the Ami 

irrounded by wal d battle- 

it in the centre of the town. It has 
e entranc--. outside which we pulled up. 
-h portal of the entrai ,, n ] y 

: tdi for the 

-ull.ih by an Italian, who in return 
I l»y the Ameer, wl 
■ant an; m ji ar 

oorway and 
and narrow Ian 

- lard of honour 



was drawn up and a band played as we passed, 
until wc.it last came upon the Prime Minister, 
standing in the doorway of a small courtyard, 
which was full of Mussulmans, all wearing huge 
white turbans. The Premier is a handsome, 
white bearded old gentleman, Mirza Shah 
Divambegi by name. The reception ceremonial 
was tin same as with the Ameer, with state 
meals, etc. During the meal we shook hands 
times innumerable whenever a good wish was 
expressed for the opposite party. 

Divambegi is the highest official at Bokhara, 
and the whole burden of the Government in 
reality rests on his shoulders. He looks after 
the entire administration of the Ameer's exten- 
sive realm, from the Hindu Kush Mountains to 
the Lake of Ural, and he is at the same time 
Prime Minister of the Interior, War Minister, 
and Lord Chief Justice. The latter office 
entails a considerable amount of work, inas- 
much as the conditions of life in Bokhara are 

extremely patriarchal, 
and the humblest su In- 
ject may seek the 
advice of Divambegi 
about the veriest 
trifle. A man living 
many miles from the 
city may, for instance, 
bring a complaint that 
his neighbour's sheep 
are in the habit of 
straying on to his 
fields ; another thinks 
he has not been fairly 
dealt with as regards 
the water from one 
of the big canals used 
for the irrigation of 
the country ; a third 
holds that his neigh- 
bour has built a high 
wall too near his land, 
thereby robbing his vine of its due measure of sun. 
All these troubles Divambegi must see to, besides 
attending to correspondence with the political 
agent. Another drawback attached to his office 
is the restriction that he must not leave the 
palace when the Ameer is absent from Bokhara, 
which he always is. Should he leave the palace 
his power would be broken, and with his that 
of the Ameer, whose representative he is. Every 
Friday he witnesses, from a loggia over the 
entrance of the palace, the executions of the 
week, which always take place in the Rigistan. 
'I he executioner on such occasions uses a huge 
knife. 

The visit to Divambegi over, we were at 
iiberty to proceed to the palace placed at our 



OK Till-: l-RIME MINISTERS PALACE. 



MY VISIT TO THE AMEER OF BOKHARA. 



189 



disposal. It was called Oltichane, the "house 
of the strangers." It had a number of glass 
doors opening on to a spacious courtyard, and 
some of the rooms were partly furnished in 
European fashion, although the splendidly 
carved ceilings with their colours and gilt, the 
many small stucco niches in the walls, and 
the long tables with their profusion of fruits 
would not allow one to forget that one was in 
Bokhara. 

Besides a staff of servants, five begs were 
stationed at the palace ; they were in a way 
attached to us, and it was their duty to show us 
everything of interest in the town. With these 
men for our guides, we at once set out to see 
the city in which there lives but one foreigner, a 
Russian — the Ameer's Court apothecary. Just 
outside the palace there is a large fruit market, 
where are offered for sale 
most of the fruits of 




From a] 



A SCENE IN THE FRUIT MARKET, 



Asia ; fruit is brought even from India by the 
caravans. Of special interest are the booths 
of the melon-vendors, where the fruits are hung 
on cords under matting so as to protect them 
from the burning sun. The most luscious 
melons can be had for a mere trifle, and in the hot 
season the natives' daily fare consists of nothing 
but a couple of melons and a little bread and tea. 
Close to the market-place we passed a large 
public pond. These ponds, of which there are 
several in various parts of the town, serve not 
only as water-troughs for animals, but also supply 



drinking-water for the people, especially in the 
warm season, when the River Swafichan is dried 
up. The inhabitants of Bokhara also wash their 
clothes and themselves in these ponds, but their 
greatest attraction lies in the fact that the steps 
leading down to the water are in the afternoon a 
favourite resort for the good people of Bokhara, 
who, their work done, gather there in order to 
discuss the news of the day. 

Round the ponds are numbers of restaurants, 
or tjajchane (tea-houses) as they are called, 
where melons and other kinds of fruit are also 
served. A water-pipe, made from a dried gourd, 
is provided free of charge, and passes from 
mouth to mouth, each guest taking but one long 
pull. Gambling of a kind is also resorted to in 
these tea-houses, the method being somewhat 
peculiar. Two sets of gamblers each have 
their thrush or partridge, which is especially 
trained for fighting. Each set urge their 

particular bird 
on to fight, the 
winning side 
appropriating the 
stakes. 

The native 
doctors or physi- 
cians always live 
at the ponds. 
They are the dis- 
ciples of the 
ancient Arabian 
physicians, and 
still practise the 
same methods. 
They use certain 
herbs and drugs, 
which can all be 
bought in the 
bazaars, and 
some of their 
remedies are 
very quaint. 
When the good 
folks of Bokhara 
feel unwell, the 
first thing they 
do is to get bled ; the blood always gets the 
blame for causing the illness. Sitting in the 
open air outside his residence at the pond, 
with his knives and scissors handy on a 
small stool, the native surgeon bleeds his 
patients, on the head or the arms, as the 
case may be, according to the whereabouts of 
the pain. 

The dentist, who also officiates as barber— 
the Bokhara men have their heads shaved, but 
let their beards grow— knows but one way of 
preventing toothache — extracting the tooth. He 









II il WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 







SERVE AS RESERVOIRS, BATHS, AND 
GENERAL RENDEZVOUS. 



/■>;>/// <l rhoto. 



ing the luckless patient's 
en his knees. 

we made our way to the 

situated upon a hill in the 

of the town, and guarded by native 

in a kind of Russian uniform. From 

d into 

• rd, which is 

sur all sidi s l>y 

.on 
I which 

in which t) 

only 

In the 
time of th' 
ullah t 

■ h e i r 

k- 

:1. 
The pri- 
are partly under- 

I 



A NATIVE DOCTOR AT WORK IN THE STREET. 



wretched, small, filthy, and ill-smelling com- 
partments are full of prisoners, who sleep on 
the bare ground or on what rags they have 
brought with them. All the prisoners under 
these clay domes go about without chains, 
crammed together like bees in a hive, but the 
worst criminals are kept 
chained hand and foot in a 
compartment close to the 
guard-room. One still sees 
the underground 
caves or holes into 
which prisoners 
used to be thrown 
in order that they 
might be stung to 
death by insects. 
Russia, however, 
has put a stop to 
these practices, 
as well as to that 
of throwing 
prisoners down 
from a high 
tower in the 
town. 

The noisome 

atmosphere of 

the gaol drove 

Photo. us quickly away 




MY VISIT TO THE AMEER OF BOKHARA. 



191 




THE PRISON Op BOKHARA. 

From a Plwto. 



from the miserable place, and having thrown 
a handful of coins to the prisoners, we, by way 
of a contrast, drove to Schirbeden, one of the 
Ameer's most beautiful palaces, situated just 
outside the city wall. 

The palace is, a. straggling group of two-storied, 
flat-roofed clay houses, surrounded by high walls, 
inside which there are magnificent, well-watered 
gardens, with a profusion of fruit trees and 
flowers. Inside the courtyards, along the dif- 
ferent rows of • houses, are verandas and 
balconie^-iSupported by wooden pillars, painted 
in gorgeous hues and ornamented with painted 
and gilt stucco decorations. There are large 
assembly halls with balconies, behind the trellis : 
work of which the women can watch the Ameer 
in council with his high dignitaries. The walls 
and the*xeiling are ornamented with stucco, rich 
in gold and colour. Numerous mirrors are let 
into the walls, especially in one recess, the floor of 
which is somewhat elevated, and here the Ameer 
sits on his gilt throne-chair. I made bold to 
remove the throne for the purpose of photo- 
graphing it. It is a present from Czar Alexander 
III. In the palace there is accommodation for 
the harem, with the Ameer's one hundred and 
twenty wives. There were, however, no women 
in the palace on the occasion of our visit, and, as 
women are always veiled in the streets, we had 
some trouble in photographing any. We per- 
suaded one of the begs attached to us, 
however, to show us his wives, whilst we sent his 
colleagues away for the time being under some 
pretext or other. With the obliging beg we 
drove to his house, which, according to flokhara 



booths were 
gear — black 
caps, and 
native school, 
children of the 
the Koran in Arabic 



notions, was very well ap- 
pointed — that is to say, there 
were plenty of good rugs, 
>ut no furniture. In the 
room where his three wives 
lived we were entertained 
with tea and fruit, whilst the 
wives, two of whom were not 
bad-looking, did their Inst 
to amuse us with music from 
some long guitars with metal 
strings. These black- 
haired, pale-faced 
women of the East 
wore htavy silver orna- 
ments and a number 
of coral necklaces. 
Several times during 
the meal they refreshed 
themselves with a pull 
from the water-pipe. 

We next drove 
through the street of 
the hatters. Here the 
full of manifold kinds of head- 
fur caps, many - coloured velvet 
gold - tasselled boys' caps for a 
where a mollah teaches the 
Bokharan upper ten to read 
This they learn by heart, 



without in the least understanding the trans- 
lation. They also learn to read and write the 
languages of the country, both Turkish and 
Persian, a little algebra and mathematics, and, 
more especially, the history of Bokhara. The 
teaching is delightfully primitive, all the children 
reading the lesson aloud at the same time. In 
a small recess in the wall the teacher keeps his 
indispensable little tea-pot, together with his not 
very ambitious library and several formidable 
rods, with which he occasionally birches in- 
attentive pupils. This weird school is depicted 
on the next page. 

Having had enough of the children's buzz, we 
proceeded to the vast burial-ground of the city. 
As is the custom of Bokhara, the bodies, wrapped 
only in white shrouds, rest in brick sarcophagi, 
which from want of space are often placed on 
top of one another, to the height of several 
stories. Here and there one sees larger funeral 
vaults or chambers, which contain the graves of 
holy men, and which are distinguished by the 
tail of a yak stuck on a pole at the entrance. 
The graves of the prophets, more especially, 
boast large funeral vaults with towers. The 
Mohammedans believe in the prophets of the 
Jews, and amongst many others Job (Ajup) is 
said to be buried at Bokhara. His vault— seen 
in our final snap-shot— consists of numerous 









THE WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 




THE INTKKIOR OF A NATIVE SCHOOL. 



partments, with ancient inscrip- 

walls. In the inmost 

'■■I ick sarcophagus, 

of beautifully carved 

•t the thirteenth century. 

who keep watch over the 

■1 us with very angry looks, but 



some good Bokhara money brought about a 
wonderful change in their attitude. 

During ihe whole of our stay we were most 
hospitably treated, and bade farewell to Bokhara 



with sincere regret. 














The author writes : " This is the history of one of the most exciting, perilous, and disastrous gold- 
rushes that have ever taken place in Australia." Hundreds of diggers set out from Coolgardie 
bound for a reported new " rush," and got hopelessly lost in the bush, where many of them went 

mad and died from want of water and food 




NEW gold-rush has been dis- 
covered by Frost and party, and 
a ' reward claim ' applied for and 
granted." 

Such was the welcome news 
which spread with startling rapidity amongst the 
hardy diggers of Coolgardie one bright morning 
in October, 1893. The alluvial gold, which 
had been fairly plentiful for a few months after 
Bayley found his Reward Mine, was becoming 
scarce, and fresh gold finds were being every- 
where sought for by the most daring lot of men 
who had ever faced danger and difficulty in 
Australia. There was a feeling of dissatisfaction 
and unrest abroad, for it seemed more than 
probable that the great gold discoveries at Cool- 
gardie had begun to " peter out." 

The prospectors of the alleged new find had 
reported that it was from seventy to seventy- 
five miles N.N.W. of Coolgardie. and a most 
difficult place to get at. By dinner-time of the 
day the news arrived, however, nearly every 
person who could do so was rushing round 
getting ready to set out for the new field. 

Picks and shovels fetched five times as much 
as they were being sold for in the early morning, 
and all classes of eatables increased 100 per 

Vol. xii. — 25. 



cent, in price Water was scarce, but the price 
stood at one shilling and sixpence pei gallon till 
about two o'clock, when the condenser proprie- 
tors declared they had sold out all their reserves. 
An informal meeting of teamsters was held, at 
which were discussed the charges to be made 
for the carriage of goods, the direction to be 
taken in order to reach the reported new find, 
and the location of supplies of water along the 
road. After a considerable amount of argument 
all the preliminaries were settled, and a route 
agreed upon via " Raeside's Soak," a place 
thirty-five miles from Coolgardie, where it was 
known water was obtainable. 

By six o'clock that evening Coolgardie was 
pretty well deserted and several hundred men 
were on their way to " Raeside's Soak," many 
on foot and carrying their swags, while others 
had their blankets, stores, etc., on the waggons 
and walked behind themselves. That night the 
bulk of the diggers reached Bullabulling, about 
seventeen miles from Coolgardie, where they 
camped till the morning. On the following 
day the "Soak" was reached by several hundred 
men, who found a plentiful supply of water at 
the foot of the granite rocks. It was discovered, 
however, that they were no nearer their goal 






THE WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 



* ■-■ 4: 





*"*^ w^ 1 


V ^ ^^^"*_ 


V 








- ^ 



















. 


— 



IV ON FOOT WERE CARRYTNt; THEIR SWAGS. 



than they had been when they started, for it was 

v those who professed to know that 

" rush " was about seventy miles from 

. and the way lay through 

an intensely desolate country, where not a 

rop of water was available. 

't to be . at that many of the " 

-in view of the fact that no one knew 

re the " find " was — 

I the risks too great and decided 

'^ardie. But there were 

hundreds of resolute men who determined at all 

hazards to _oldfield or perish 

in the attempt, and they proceeded to bake 

bread and lay up a supply to last them till they 

reached the new " rush/' 

r of diggers, many of them splendid 

shmen, determii ght through the 

n-in the di- h the new "rush" 

reporte'. The task of clearing the 

road for the heavily-laden waggons through the 

ia most serious one. 



But, despite all difficulties, 
everyone worked with the 
greatest energy, and a track 
about fifteen miles long was 
cleared. But the day's work 
had been so heavy, the heat 
was so intense, and the diffi- 
culties still to be encountered 
were so great that a goodly 
number of the fainter-hearted 
turned back to Coolgardie. 

The following day another 
fifteen miles were negotiated 
by the teams, but the intense 
heat made the men who were 
toiling so terribly thirsty that 
it was found most of the water 
reserved for the trip had 
already been used. When 
this discovery was made a sort 
of panic seized the diggers, 
who were beginning to realize 
the seriousness of their posi- 
tion. They had no definite 
information as to the locality 
of their objective, and no cer- 
tainty that even if they reached 
it they would be able to get a 
single drop of water. 

The clamour for water now 
rose to a considerable pitch, 
and the men applied to the 
teamsters to let them drink 
the fluid that was left in the 
tanks for the use of the horses. 
The teamsters naturally ob- 
jected to giving away this 
water, knowing full well that unless the horses 
were well fed and watered they could never 
hope to reach the new " rush." But the diggers 
were in no mood to consider the needs of 
horses. They were feeling the pangs of thirst 
and, willy-nilly, they must be supplied. All, 
however, who had money were perfectly willing 
to pay a fair price for the precious fluid, but 
those who had none— and there were quite a 
number of such — demanded a supply as well, 
and each man had to receive a small quantity. 

The following morning what water was left 
from the previous evening was doled out by the 
teamsters to the thirsty diggers, and they then 
prepared to leave their loads and go back to 
" Raeside's Soak " for a fresh supply. It was 
three days before they could get back with sup- 
plies of water, during which time the larger 
number of the diggers had become desperate. 
Strong men began to babble of running brooks, 
and " Water ! Water ! Give us water ! " was the 
wild, despairing cry of the maddened and 



THE "SIBERIA" GOLD-RUSH. 



195 



stricken gold diggers, who by this time were 
nearly all unnerved and demoralized. 

But the return of the waggons with a fresh 
supply of the life-giving fluid, some of which 
was sold at three shillings and sixpence per 
gallon, put the men into good heart again and 
restored their mental equilibrium. Part of the 
goods was reloaded and another attempt made 
to get to the reputed new gold discovery. For 
two days longer both men and horses toiled 
hard to get through the bush, till the animals 
began to drop in their tracks. The diggers now 
found themselves once more in a desperate 
plight, as many of the horses were dead and 
most of the others dying. 

A diggers' " roll-up " or meeting was called, 
and the serious situation discussed by those 
men who still retained their mental faculties. It 
was decided that there was no chance of the 
teams being able to get through to the " rush." 
Each man would have to do the best he could 
for himself, as it was now a matter of sauve 
qui petit. The teamsters who had horses able 
to carry them determined to ride back to the 
"Soak," and this they did, promising to send aid 
back to their mates. Several lightly-equipped 
parties passed the famished men with supplies of 
food and water, but refused to share them with 
the famished diggers. In some instances, how- 
ever, they were held up and compelled to 
distribute their supplies at the point of the 
revolver. 

Several horsemen passed the desperate band 
on their way back to Coolgardie, and they 
informed them that the reported new find was a 
rank "duffer," and advised them on no account 
to go on any farther. This news increased 
the hoiror of the situation. Many old and 
experienced prospectors who had battled their 
.way through all the difficulties and dangers to 
this stage without a murmur began to realize 
their desperate plight. 

The hope of sharing in the good fortune ot 
those who had made the new discovery had 
buoyed them up and kept them going ; but the 
news that the " rush " was a " duffer " was a facer 
to them all. Those who were less inured to 
hardship and disappointment lost heart com- 
pletely. Some of them succumbed to their 
despair and lay down, utterly unable to go 
farther. Ever and anon some delirious digger 
would rush from the track into the bush, confi- 
dent, it seemed to his mates, that just a little 
way ahead there was a stream of running water 
at which he could quench his consuming thirst. 
In all probability that was the last ever seen of 
these unfortunates. 

It was a wild, mad rush to get back from the 
terror of the lonely bush and the glare of the 



pitiless sun and the ravings of delirious men. 
Oh, the horror of it ! Men who had been 
true as steel to each other for years permitted 
their mates, with scarcely an effort to prevent 
them, to leave the track and plunge into the 
bush, knowing full well they were going to their 
doom. 

Swags had been thrown away first of all by 
the unfortunate men as useless encumbrances ; 
next the precious, but, unhappily, empty, water- 
bags were abandoned ; then all superfluous 
clothing had been discarded to enable the 
haggard, hollow-eyed, thirst-stricken little army 
of men to reach water again. 

But there were a few who went on towards 
their goal, undaunted by danger, determined to 
conquer the difficulties, find the reported gold 
discovery, or die in the attempt, although they 
were even now practically without food or water, 
So they pushed on, ever on. The babblings of 
crazy men, the hysterical shrieks and groans of 
thirst-induced delirium were nothing to them. 
They could not render any assistance, and could 
only, if they stayed, swell still louder the chorus 
of agony and despair which resounded on all 
sides. All their energies were directed towards 
reaching a high mountain that towered above 
the surrounding plain, and whence they hoped 
to see some signs of the camp which they 
calculated must have arisen near the scene of 
the new " rush." 

At last the bottom of the hill was reached. 
One old prospector, who had been on every 
goldfield in Australia, was the first to reach the 
summit and gaze eagerly out over the plain 
beyond. Yes ! there away in the distance were 
little curls of smoke, sure signs of human 
habitation. A wild, hoarse roar, or rather 
shriek, of triumph burst from the parched 
throats of the excited diggers, which was taken 
up in trembling but no less joyful chorus away 
down the line to the last straggler, and not a 
few of those hardy diggers knelt down on the 
ground and with streaming eyes gave thanks for 
the fact that their goal was now in sight. 

Fresh hope had been instilled into them by 
the view, and with bleeding feet, tattered clothes, 
bloodshot eyes, and swollen tongues they still 
held on their way. Shortly after they had 
seen the smoke they met a party of diggers, 
who confirmed their conjectures as to the 
locality in which the new gold discovery was 
situate. They told them, however, that it was 
a "duffer." This was confirmed by a board 
hanging near the track bearing the legend, 
" Keep away from Frost and Bonnor's rush, as 
it is a duffer." That night, while the party sat 
round the camp fire, one of them, not quite so 
spent as the others, suggested that it would be 






THE WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 



in any other 
i W< stern 
;t, they 
their thirst, 
and oni 
i r the arid 
• and ill-starred 
risten the new- 
It n by that name to 
i 

morning the little band set 

avely along, though many 

ik and exhausted that 

At last they crept 

E i amp, a squalid, hungry, 

d : their clothes in tatters, unable to 

full of that invincible determina- 

.. i ■■• ught them undaunted through 

Fheir pitiable appear- 

jympathy of the whole ramp, 

invenience obtainable 

it their disposal. As soon, however, 

en were revived by a supply of food and 

the gold which it 

_ : - found by the prospectors, 

and for which the reward claim had been granted. 

news that the "rush" was 

ived by them on the road 



But to the relief, as well as to the unbounded 
delight, of the exhausted band the most con- 
vincing proof of the value of the reported new 
find was shown' them in the shape of hundreds 
of ounces of splendid alluvial gold, which had 
been concealed in a hole in the ground beneath 
the floor of the prospectors' tent. 

Meanwhile the other diggers who had taken 
different toads and those who had turned back 
had tared very badly. One of the prospectors, 
who was mounted on a good horse, seeing the 
serious plight that the diggers were in, galloped 
back to Coolgardie and raised the alarm that 
hundreds of men were out on the road to 
the new "rush," many of them delirious and 
running about the bush mad with thirst and 
hunger. Unless prompt and decisive measures 
were taken, he said, the bulk of the men who 
had started from Coolgardie a few days before 
would undoubtedly perish. 

The dreadful news spread with startling 
rapidity, and Warden Finnerty, who was the 
Government Resident Magistrate, and Mr. 
Renou, the then Chief of the Public Works 
Department, threw themselves into the work of 
organizing measures of relief with an energy and 
promptitude that did them the greatest credit. 
Every team that could be obtained was " com- 





\, i 












BjTx 












s 




Wto 










they ha that whoever 

gold was 

ngeance 

men w 1 such a frightful 

jour: 



mandeered " by these masterful public servants ; 
tanks of water were placed in waggons and 
hurried away to the scene of the reported catas- 
trophe ; and about thirty camels were also 
requisitioned and sent out with from forty to 



THE "SIBERIA" GOLD-RUSH. 



197 



fifty gallons of water each, to get, if possible, 
right through to "Siberia." 

The experience of " Billy " Smith, who drove 
one of the relief waggons, may be taken as a 
sample of the work carried out by the flying 
column of rescuers. Billy was a first-rate bush- 
man, and, guided by the description of the 




" UI'ON smith's approach he cried, ' 'ter ! 'ter ! 

man who brought in the news, he struck the 
track of the diggers about thirty-four miles from 
Coolgardie., 

He had been driving his team at a smart 
pace since early morning, but had seen no signs 
of the derelict men. Suddenly he saw to the 
right of the track on which he was travelling 
what he took to be a naked black fellow, but 



the feeble wave of the arm showed that he was 
a white man who was dragging himself towards 
the waggon. Upon Smith's approach he cried, 
in sepulchral tones, "Ter! 'ter!" at the same 
time pointing to his mouth. Billy filled a 
pannikin with water and held it to the man's 
mouth, and he gulped it down in a second. 

He was then lifted to the edge 

of the track so that he could 
be picked up as the waggon 
came back again, and Smith 
pushed forward to assist the 
others. About a quarter of a 
mile ahead he began to meet 
small parties of men, all of 
whose wants he supplied till 
his water ran out. 

Many of these diggers were 
almost nude and well - nigh 
dying, and altogether they 
formed one of the sorriest- 
looking crowds ever seen in 
Australia. The way they had 
come was easily followed by 
the boots, clothes, tools, etc., 
strewn along the track. Some 
of the diggers on getting water, 
although nearly dead, yet 
volunteered to go back with 
the relief parties and pick up 
their mates. In this way 
many men were rescued from 
a fearful and lingering death. 
Others, however, had plunged 
into the bush mad with thirst, 
and, becoming exhausted, had 
lain down to die. How many 
actually perished in that awful 
march will probably never be 
known. 

Mr. Renou, to whom the 
success of the relief parties 
was largely due, did not reap 
any advantage from his 
humane, though rather drastic, 
measures of relief— rather the 
reverse. The "commandeer- 
ing " of horses, waggons, and 
camels, purchase of water, 
etc., cost four hundred pounds, which the 
Government were obliged to pay, and this 
expenditure was not viewed any too favourably. 
But the hardy diggers will never forget Mr. 
Renou's services to them in the hour of their 
direst peril, nor those of Warden Finnerty, 
who still retains his position os leading warden 
of the gold fields. 



lor the Love of Lazaro. 



By Leslie Coi i ins. 

nt, and accompanied the American troops to China and the Philippines. 

• le Is'and oi Panay he made the acquaintance of a beautiful and accomplished 

many suitors. One of these, a Spaniard, maddened by jealousy, had Mr. 

irried into captivity among the enemy. The author relates how the courageous 

... . discovered the plot, and rescued him at the risk of her life. 



; A j with the Govern- 

\5y^l [loilo, en the 

^?i>i^ Panay, one of the larj 

"i Philippine group, 

I had the pleasure of making the 

. a •" M lady, called 

1 should explain, 

half-bn ds, as distinguished from full- 

W hen 1 first knew her she 

lirty, and her loveliness was 

ommon half-caste Spanish- 

ayan type of the Oriental Indies. 

not married I do not know, for 

in the s marry early. Of her 

v family 1 was never informed, 

that her only brother was an officer in the 

under Delgardo. He, poor 

his last long sleep with his 

n the fair Panaian hills, having 




THE 

I, kissing the land 

N edless 

n £ to h« beauty and 

charm of her manner [ :izaro 

had many admirers. One of them I noticed in 



particular -a tall, dark, handsome Spaniard with 
rlashing black eyes. 

Many evenings found me enjoying the hospi- 
tality of this popular lady. She was a charming 
entertainer. At the piano she was fascinating, 
in conversation brilliant, and graceful in the 




R, MR. LESLIE COLLINS. 

Front a Phoio. 



dance. Small wonder that the men admired 
her. The Don and I never met at her home. 
He was insanely jealous of her, although she 
treated him exactly like everyone else. He and 
I even had some words about the matter of my 
calling upon her, but I laughed at him and 
treated it all as idle talk. 

One beautiful evening, after a long, hot, sultry 
day— and evening to one in the sun-kissed 
tropics means rest to a tired soul— I was taking 
my usual walk down the beach towards Molo. 
Molo is a native suburb of Iloilo, and although 
at that time it was perfectly quiet, it had long 
been known to be a lurking-place for both 
factions on the Island of Panay— a rendezvous 
for the cut-throats and desperadoes who served 
under " Quintin Silas," the Ladione leader, 
and the ignorant, hot-headed " insurrectos " 
under Delgardo. 

On this particular evening, as it was very 
warm and as I had taken the walk a hundred 
times with nothing to mar its pleasure, I had 
foolishly discarded my side-arms. All I carried 
was a small mahogany cane to keep off the 
wild dogs of the beach. I was strolling along 
aimlessly, close to a disreputable-looking native 
shack, when a band of men suddenly emerged 
from it and surrounded me, and in less time 



FOR THE LOVE OF LAZARO. 



199 



than it takes to tell I found myself seized by 
no fewer than a dozen Filipinos. With the only 
weapon I possessed, a mere cane, it would have 
been folly to show fight ; it was useless even to 
shout, and in a moment I was bound hand and 
foot, a sickening gag was placed in my mouth, 




1 WAS BOUND HAND AND FOOT i 



and I was hurriedly carried into the shack. 
Imagine my surprise when I found myself in the 
presence of the handsome Spaniard — the jealous 
suitor of Lazaro, with whom I had quarrelled. 

What he said to me I do not care to repeat. 
I was heside myself with rage, not so much 
because I was in the power of this love-sick 
madman, but because I had been such a fool as 
to walk unarmed into his trap. Smiling an evil 
smile, he gave me to understand that I was in 
his power, and that he could do with me as he 
saw fit. He kicked me viciously as I lay there 



helpless, and sneered in his violent and self- 
satisfying rage. With curses in Spanish, he told 
me I " was a dog, and only fit for this " —draw- 
ing a dagger from his pocket and brandishing 
it significantly. As I lay there on the dirty 
bamboo floor of that foul-smelling shack, bound 

hand and foot, with a 
nauseating gag in my 
mouth and suffering in- 
sults from a man who 
seemed likely to stick at 
nothing, is it any wonder 
I became desperate and 
struggled to burst my 
bonds ? 

I think I must have 
fainted after a time, for it 
was far into the night 
when I awoke. I found 
I was still tightly bound, 
but the miserable gag had 
slipped, so that I could 
breathe easier. In addi- 
tion to the reeds that held 
me, cutting deeply into 
my flesh, I saw that I was 
fastened to the centre- 
pole of the shack by a 
heavy chain. 

My first thought, of 
course, was of escape. I 
looked around as far as 
I could in the cramped 
position in which I was 
lying, and found to my 
delight that my amiable 
Spanish friend had de- 
parted. 

I do not think I have 
ever seen such an utterly 
villainous lot of Filipinos 
as the crew who filled the 
shack. They were all busy 
drinking " tuba," a vile 
native spirit, and they 
swore and howled at me 
like fiends. Had it not 
been for the vigilance of my guards, who 
appeared to have strict orders to keep me alive, 
I believe I should have been cut to pieces then 
and there, for bolos were flashing on every side. 
I begged my captors, as well as I could amid 
the frightful din, to loosen the reeds that bound 
me, as I was lightly clad and the bonds were 
cutting deep into my flesh, but they answered 
me with curses. 

After a time the rest of the men became more 
or less intoxicated and took but little notice of 
me, so 1 turned my attentions to the women, of 






1111. WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 



All were of 

a woman is 

hvavs have a woman s 

her her skin be black or 

1 man took pity 

ut the torturing bonds, 

ill chained to the 
1 asked 
it. 

re- 4 

sh. 
•• oat 1 had sus- I 

Spaniard, 
. had had me 
:isurre> 
and what r. would 

■ inly knew. 
my 
to help m< 
1 her 

muci 

i and in- 

r even 

my 

II in vain : 

poor woman was 

'.ife. 

3 wer 

me g her I 

her 
I h. _ od 
. . how- 
iat after I 

into the interior she did actually make 
Iloilo and inform the authorities and 
rita. 

woman told me that " poco tempo, 

a little while — perhaps to-morrow) I 

into the interior to Delgardo, 

_ nt general. Sure enough, just before 

I was carried out (still heavily chained) 

and thrown i: y into a cov 

bou cart, i Id that if I made a sound 

instantly. ( >ne doesn't 

make much noise in such circumstances. 

. ral days' 

duration over a I "try, and I 

but litl at or drink. At last, one 

. id I was taken 

to the i entre- 

pole of the ho;: ' | around 

Id that if I escaped 
- it with their In 
In •. rooms, a thick, 

eparating them. One 
I 

from 
side of the partition. It spoke 



splendid Visayan, yet I knew the person talking 
to Ik cither an American or an Englishman. 
In Visayan the native does not recognise a 
period or lower his voice at the end of the 
tences. An American or Englishman, no 
matter how well he speaks the Visayan language, 
invariably lets his voice fall at the end of each 
sentence. It is force of habit. Hence, for this 







'for i.ove OF i azaro, she replied. 

reason, and also because of his accent, I knew 
that an American was addressing me. I learned 
afterwards that this man was a deserter from 
one of the Volunteer regiments stationed in 
Iloilo at that time. 

During my two weeks' captivity I heard him 
speak every morning, but never saw him. I 
asked him many questions, always speaking 
Visayan or Spanish. I told him he could not 
deceive me, and that I knew him to be of the 
bianco sangre (white blood). For the sake of 
that, if nothing more, would he not help me to 
escape ? Then, with much emotion, I asked 
if he were not a Christian or the son of a 
Christian mother, who was even now praying for 
him as I knew mine was for me. This last 
question seemed to cut him to the quick. He 
remained silent for a long while, as if weighing 
the terrible consequences should he try to help 
and fail. The mention of the word "mother," 
perhaps, had awakened a thousand bitter-sweet 
re< ollections of home and friends across the sea. 
His pensive silence grew painful. Anything, I 
thought, to break the awful suspense. I cried 
aloud and demanded to be taken before 



FOR THE LOVE OF LAZARO. 



20I 







GUARDS WERE PLACED AROUND THE HUT, 



Delgardo. Why, I asked, should the general 
treat and starve me like a cur? 

At that time all I received to eat daily was a 
small handful of raw fish in the morning and 
about half a pound of half-cooked rice in the 
evening. My unseen interlocutor assured me 
I should be well looked after, and told me he 
would see that I had more to eat, if he himself 
had to smuggle it to me. I thanked him for 
his generosity. 

The deserter informed me that both I and 
the insurgent general had been made the victims 
of a skilful trick. It was a well-known fact that 
a certain American general used to walk alone 
and unarmed along Iloilo beach every evening, 
and my Spanish friend accordingly got into 
correspondence with some of the leading " in- 
surrectos " — possibly with Delgardo himself — 
and offered to seize the general for them, pro- 
vided they paid him well. The Filipinos jumped 
at the offer, but the Spaniard, not having the 
courage to carry out his plan, conceived the 
idea of capturing me instead, thus effectually 
putting me out of his way, and deceiving, the 
insurgents long enough for him to get his 
reward. He had managed to kill two birds 
with one stone with a vengeance ! Of course, 
the mistake was soon discovered, but by that 
time the wily villain had collected his blood- 
money and vanished. 

I was now to be held for exchange, my 
informant told me, and in the meantime as 

Vol. xii.— 26. 



much informa- 
tion as possible 
was to be glean- 
ed from me. 

One evening 
about midnight 
as 1 lay in the 
wretched shack, 
turning over 
plans of escape, 
I was suddenly 
startled to see 
the figure of a 
woman crouch- 
ing in the semi- 
darkness of the 
doorway. For 
an instant only 
she faltered, and 
then,goingdown 
on all fours, she 
carefully and 
noiselessly 
crawled towards 
me. I lay per 
f ec t ly still, 
hardly daring to 
breathe. It was very dark, but still not abso- 
lutely so. When the figure came nearer I 
found myself, to my intense surprise, looking 
into the handsome face of Senorita Lazaro ! 
I was about to speak when she placed her hand 
over my mouth and whispered an injunction 
to be silent. Then she crawled back to the 
door, and two big Chinamen crept in in 
the same noiseless manner. They carried files 
in their hands. A Chinaman, by the way, 
makes a splendid filer. These men said not a 
word, but commenced work immediately on my 
fetters, and soon I heard their files cutting into 
my chains. Now that rescue seemed close at 
hand a fever of impatience consumed me, and 
1 implored them to hurry. They were probably 
about an hour in doing their work, but it 
seemed ages to me. I became nervous and 
apprehensive lest my guards should appear ; but 
at last my joy knew no bounds, for the chain 
gave way and I was free. Then the two half- 
naked Celestials crawled out into the darkness 
as quietly as they had come and left me alone 
with my deliverer. She hesitated for an instant 
as a drunken guard turned over in his " tuba "- 
induced slumber, and then, when the man lay 
still again, she told me she had managed so 
that all the guards were intoxicated and asleep. 
Taking me by the hand she led the way, and 
we both crawled out into the night. All was 
still in the forest save for the occasional 
howl of an ape or the weird cry of 






THE WIDE WORLD MAOA/.INK. 




I SAW A FILIPINO STANDING, HOLDING A HORSE.' 



night bird, 
distance from 
alio " (horse), a 
. We both 
■ from tl ind, and in 

. tree 
2, hi iN! 
the head. He 
. .vith li is 
'. not withstand- 
that it k, I 
r, and I 
. outline of 
I 
no 
• than th> ■ of my 
I quickly 
rhile my 
a Filipino 
nto my hand. I 

ted I not a 

it a mor: 
In thai i gun would 

I 

I 
ong at ult ride 

to lloilo. 



After we had 
hut La 
nd then 1 knew 




THE Rl 

AUTHOR BY SENOKITA LAZAKo, 



Riding only by night, with infinite caution, 
and hiding through the long, sultry days in the 
rice paddies, I made my way towards freedom. 
On the evening of the fifth day, 
tattered and torn, and utterly 
exhausted, I rode into lloilo. 
I saw to the horse which had 
carried me nobly, and had a 
general clean-up myself. Then, 
buckling a Colt's pistol about 
me — for I had learnt wisdom 
from experience — I set out for 
the house of Senorita Lazaro. 
She had been anxiously await- 
ing my arrival, and was over- 
joyed to see me. 

The Spaniard ? I have not 
seen him since he left me to 
my fate in the native shack on 
Molo beach — nor has Senorita 
Lazaro. 

I have the little dagger she 
gave me now. It lies on the 
desk before me as I write. I 
cherish it as a token round 
which linger fascinating memo- 
ries that carry me far across the 
sea to that midsummer night 
in the Island of Panay when 
I was rescued from the " U> 
surrectos." 



Odds and Ends. 



A Californian Fruit Fair — "The Longest Name in the World" — A Hole with a History- 

" Calamity Jane's " Last Resting-place, etc., etc. 




STATE that boasts of twenty million 
orange trees, producing about twenty- 
two thousand car-loads of delicious 
golden oranges every year, can afford 
to indulge in fairs where the choicest 
examples of its fruit may be seen. The State 
in question is California, and the fairs referred 
to are wonderful exhibitions, where all kinds 
of devices, made entirely out of oranges and 
lemons, are often to be seen. The giant 
lemon, made out of three thousand lemons, de- 
picted in our photograph is an example of what 
the Californian grower is capable of accom- 
plishing when he desires to attract the attention 
of visitors. Although attractive this is by 



entirely out of 

kind of Western 

to an ordinary 



no means the most novel exhibit that has 
graced the citrus fairs of Southern California. 
At the Los Angeles fair of 1891 there was 
a carriage and pair created 
oranges. The carriage was a 
coach, very similar in design 
London 'bus. It was literally covered with 
choice fruit, even the wheels, roof, seats, and 
step being made of oranges. To complete the 
effect the horses were also made, out of the same 
fruit. In the same fair there was a magnificent 
tower, built up of five thousand oranges. In a 
recent exhibition an immense globe made up 
of ten thousand oranges was the principal 
attraction. 




-> 



A GIGANTIC LEMON', BUII.T UP OF THREE THOUSAND LEMONS, AT A CALIFORNIAN FRUIT FAIR. 

From a Photo, by C. B. Waite, Los Angeles , Ceil. 






I Hi; WIDE WOR] 1' MAC.AZINK. 




i V A TREE. 



[Photo. 



Dw< Hi rs in India know how the " pippul," a 
to the Hindu, will make its appear- 
anywhere and everywhere, and will thrive 
nt "f sustenance and attain 
- under the most Inhos- 
surroundin;> No hand will pluck out 
■ r injure a leaf even to save the 
• il well of the village from collapse or 
from decay, for fear 
wrath of Vishnu, whose tree- it is. In 
rdinary instarv have to con- 

Mid threw out arms which 
•ween the masonry of 
e which 
gained in strength it 
- in its mighty arms, 

and _rreat slabs of stone 

I, till now. like a ,^iant 
piHai upport a- high 

a r; ich The outstretched arm of the 

m3 ' he left of the photograph will 

f th( to which the 

heavy ston have I Our photo- 

graph was ' ■ -n the outskirts of the nt f 

azipur, about forty-five miles from Benares. 



The boy seen in the snap-shot 
next reproduced is not wearing a 
lifebelt, as you might think, but 
simply his own baggy breeches, 
tilled with air. These breeches 
are made of coarse homespun 
wool, and the manner of inflating 
them is distinctly ingenious. The 
boy first jumps into the water and 
soaks the cloth, thus making it 
air-tight. Then he returns to the 
shore, takes off the breeches, and 
waves them to and fro until they 
are full of air. Then he quickly 
ties up the belt which fastens 
them, and floats off on his curious 
life - raft. Our photograph was 
taken at the Island of Kasteloryzo, 
near the Anatolian coast, where 
one may see dozens of boys stop- 
ping in the water for hours at a 
time, supported by their novel air- 
bags. 

A correspondent writes : " In 
your July issue I noticed a photo- 
graph of the name-board of an 
Indian station. The name con- 
tained nineteen letters, and you 
asked whether any of your readers 
could beat it. Well, I think I can, 
and that without going outside the 




THIS BOY IS NOT WEARING A LIFE-RELT, HUT IS 

From a] the air in his baggy breeches 



SUPPORTED BY 

! [Photo. 



ODDS AND ENDS. 



205 



British Isles ! The name I submit contains no 
fewer than fifty-eight letters, and is, I am sure, 
the longest name given to any place in the world. 
It is the actual name of a village on the Anglesey 



witness the plays they pass through Llanfair, 
etc., which they call ' the village with the long 
name,' wisely leaving the awe-inspiring desig- 
nation unspoken." 



LLANFAIRPWLLGWYNGYLLG0GERYCHWYRHDR0BWLLLLANDISIL1QG0GQG0CH 



HE LONGEST NAME IN THE WURLD 



-IT CONTAl 



•KWEK THAN FIFTY-EHiHT LETTERS, AM) BELONGS TO A WKL! 

From a Photo. 



side of the Menai Straits — in fact, the first 
station in Anglesey reached by the London 
and North -Western Railway after crossing 
the Tubular Bridge. The inhabitants of the 
village call it ' Llanfair,' life not being long 
enough for its full title ; but as many 
other Welsh villages have this name the 
letters ' P.G.' are tacked on to the end for 
the convenience of the postal authorities. 
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobvvll- Llan- 
disiliogogogoch, needless to say, means some- 
thing. It stands for ' The Church of St. Mary 
in a hollow of white hazel, near to the rapid 
whirlpool and to St. Disilio, near to a red cave.' 
Owing to its difficult guttural pronunciation— 
which is, however, effected by Welshmen with 
ease — the name has been called ' the English- 
man's cure for lockjaw.' I may add that 
Anglesey Castle, the seat of the Marquis of 
Anglesey, of pantomime fame, is situated near 
this village, and when people visit the castle to 



A daring attempt to escape from a Transvaal 
prison is illustrated in the photograph below. 
One night some officers who were patrolling 
outside the gaol in question suddenly saw a 
man's head protrude from the wall, and, run- 
ning up, they discovered a gaping hole about two 
feet high and three feet wide. One of the 
officers, with extraordinary presence of mind, at 
once hit the would-be gaol -breaker over the 
head with his truncheon, " so that he should 
know him again," and then an alarm was raised. 
An examination of the cell— which was occupied 
by seven men — disclosed blankets full of debris 
removed from the wall, a small crowbar, and a 
blanket-rope with which the prisoners intended 
to pull one another through the hole. They 
had worked night and day at the cavity, singing 
lustily to drown the noise, and intended to 
escape that night. As a result of their enter- 
prise the ringleader received an additional six 
months and his accomplices three months each. 




From 



A HOLE WITH A HISTORY. 



[Photo. 






THE WIDE WORLD MAOA/.1NK. 





ISLAND WHICH I RAVELLED l-lil; SEVERAL MILES ACROSS A LAKE. 
From a Photo, by C. M. Curtis. 



heard of floating islands, 

actually seen one. The 

• graph depicts a little islet 

good deal of wandering. On 

- d< tached from the bank 

tide and wind, and was driven 

I Neahtawanta (situated at 

ilton, New Jersey) for a distance 

nd a half. Arrived at the other 

ay grounded in about six feet of 

in our photograph. The 

of peaty ground, bound 

•I the trees and reeds 

and 

one hundred feet 

graph 

Rajahs and other 
the R( 
f Mandi, an 
nativ* 3l of 
importa 
the Ra 

;nto 
but 
I 
in their 
_u re- 
in the 

a nut 

the nu 

irned 



bearing as many as seventeen. In the tablets 
erected since- this horrible custom was abolished 
by the British, of course, these are not to be 
seen. In front of all the other stones, covered 
by silk draperies and a birch-bark umbrella, will 
be seen the memorial of the late Rajah, who 
died in December last. This stone is the largest 
of the collection, but the carvings will not be 
exposed to public view till the anniversary of 
his death. 

It is said that there is but one place in the 
world where four States or territories join. This 
is the spot in the Carizo Mountains where the 






* 






THE MEMORIALS OF THE RAJAHS OF MAM)!. 



[J'/ioto. 



ODDS AND ENDS. 



207 






i 



>• • 




• - 






■ 
- - , 


. 


~~ - 






+ 




£ ' ~ 








- --■ 


~*> V -w~*? 








— 




■ 




m 


~ 


■ . 






Si ■ 


AT„_ ^ ***'- 






From a] 




A PLAC 




A PLACE WHERE FOUR STATES MEET. 



\Plioto. 



States of Colorado and Utah and the territories 
of Arizona and New Mexico meet. The spot 
is marked by a monu- 
ment erected by United 
States surveyors, and 
inscribed with the names 
of the States and terri- 
tories whose boundaries 
meet there. It is reached 
by a trail from the road 
which leads from the 
Ute Indian Reservation 
in Colorado to the San 
Juan River. A monu- 
ment which formerly 
stood at the spot was 
destroyed by Navajo 
Indians, but during the 
summer of 1901 another 
surveying party visited 
the place and rebuilt the 
monument. In the photo- 
graph the man in white 
shirt sleeves to the left 
stands in Utah, the man 
in the middle is in Colo- 
rado, the man to the 
right is in New Mexico, 
and the pony on the ex- 
treme right is standing in 
Arizona. 

On August 1st there 
died in South Dakota 
one of the most famous 
characters the Wild West 
has ever produced — THF - GRAVE of "wild bill' 

4l p, . . r ' "CALAMITY [ANF., ' NOW 

Calamity Jane, From a p/ l0to . i, y Locke &> 



woman-scout, express-rider, and Indian -fighter. 

By a curious coincidence The Wide World 

Magazine for August, 
published on July 22nd, 
contained a full account 
of " Calamity's " extra- 
ordinary career. It was 
always supposed that 
Jane cherished a liking 
for J. B. Hickok, better 
known as "Wild Bill," 
a famous frontiersman 
who was treacherously 
shot at Dead wood in 1876 
by a desperado named 
Jack McCall, whom 
Jane subsequently pur- 
sued and captured. The 
supposition has been 
confirmed, for just before 
her death " Calamity " 
requested to be buried 
beside "Wild Bill" in 
the little cemetery at 
Mount Moriah, Dead- 
wood. Her dying request 
has been complied with, 
and the two famous 
border characters are 
now sleeping their last 
long sleep side by' side, 
under the pine trees of 
Mount Moriah. 

During the tremen- 
dous and unprecedented 
hickok— his or.n comrade, snowstorm at Algiers 

LIES BURIED BESIDE HIM. . o L 

Peterson, Deadwood, s. Dak. m January, i bg 1, the 







II li: WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 




. 



MAKING SNOWBALLS IN ALGIERS. 



[Lorcntx. 



in the above photo, was rolled in 

the public gardens, and a snow man 

built in the centre of the 

loving Arabs shivered beneath 

r turbans and bernouses, and regarded 

- a visitation from the powers of 

. if any, of them had ever seen a 

flake b< ;rer than the peaks of the Atlas 

: mains, and they did not know what to 

it. 

accompanying photograph represents a 

natural bridge near Point Arena, 

County, California. The ceaseless 

n of the waves has 

cut through t ; 

rock of the cliffs and 

kind of inland 

lak' p the strij 

:i in tl 

■ 

\r in 
number and 

difficulty in 

. in fine 
her. I his extra- 
ordinary ser 

the 
of Sighs," from 
J 1 i a r - 
the tide makes when 



running in from the Pacific Ocean and passing 
through the rocky portals. 

The fifth instalment of '' With the British to 
Sokoto," by Captain Foulkes, R.E., has not 
reached us up to the moment of going to press. 
Our readers will understand the difficulties of 
sending matter from the remote regions of Kano 
or Sokoto, where Captain Foulkes now is — a 
difficulty which has been considerably enhanced 
by the recent recrudescence of trouble in these 
newly-acquired and little-known territories. The 
series will, however, be continued at the earliest 
pi issible moment. 




BRIDGE OF SI' 



ANGE FREAK OF NATURE ON THE CALIFORN1AN COAST. 

From a Photo. 




;\ FOR YOUR LIVES! THE CLOUD-BURST IS COMING!" 

(see page 213.) 



The Wide World Magazine. 



Vol. XII. 



JANUARY, 1904. 



No. 69. 



3 Race With a Cloud=Burst. 

A RIDE THAT SAVED FIVE HUNDRED LIVES. 
By Victor Pitt-Kethley. 

Our readers will remember the disastrous cloud-burst at Heppner, in Oregon, which blotted out a 
thriving town and killed two hundred and fifty persons. This is the story of a deed of heroism 
beside which the famous "Ride of Paul Revere" fades into insignificance. It describes how two 
young farmers rode a wild race in front of the raging flood to warn the hapless towns and villages 
lower down the valley, accomplishing their apparently hopeless task with a margin of only a few 

minutes, and saving several hundred lives. 




N Sunday, June 14th last, there 
occurred at Heppner, Oregon, 
U.S.A., one of the most disastrous 
cloud-bursts that ever happened in 
the United States, if not in the 

world. The morning was balmy and pleasant, 

and many people had left the town to spend the 

day with their friends at the hospitable farm- 
houses in the surrounding hills. Thereby they 

saved their lives ; 

but they returned to 

find their homes 

wiped off the face of 

the earth. 

Heppner is situ- 
ated between steep 

hills at the head of 

Willow Creek, or, 

rather, near where 

Balm Fork and 

Hinton Fork join to 

form Willow Creek, 

and extends down 

Willow Creek for 

two miles toward the 

mighty Columbia 

River, forty-five 

miles away. 

Northward toward 

the Columbia, 

Willow Creek flows 

around among the 

hills and then passes 

through a beautiful 

valley containing the 

villages of Lexington 

and lone, finally emptying into the Columbia 

at Heppner Junction. At Heppner itself Willow 

Creek is so narrow that a man can almost jump 

across, but a descent of fifty-eight feet in a mile 

makes it very swift-flowing. It comes rushing 

Vol, xii.-27. 




MAP OF A PORTION OF THE STATE OF OREGON, SHOWING HEPPNER AND 
THE TOWNS OF LEXINGTON AND IONE. 



down from the foot-hills, which rise almost 
abruptly for a few hundred feet, while behind 
and beyond them, with plateaux between, rise 
higher and still higher hills until the timber-line 
of the Blue Mountains, some fifteen miles away, 
is reached. 

The hills adjacent to the creek are without 
trees or verdure of any kind, and shed the rain 
into the creeks as fast as it falls upon them. 

These details will 
enable Wide World 
readers to properly 
understand the 
catastrophe which 
befell the little town 
on that memorable 
14th of June. 

In the middle of 
the Sunday after- 
noon dark clouds 
appeared in the 
south, and rain soon 
began to fall, accom- 
panied by thunder 
and lightning. The 
people were glad to 
see the rain, which 
was much needed by 
the growing crops, 
but as it came 
down thicker and 
faster many made 
haste to return to 
their homes. 

Each moment the 
reverberations of the 
thunder and the patter of the rainfall grew louder, 
drowning the awful roar of the flood which was 
gathering in the hills until it was fairly upon the 
little town. 

Whilst the storm was at its height a darkness 






I'll' WIDE WORLD MAOAZINE. 



ireboding pall, 

te of the fact 

f-past five on a June 

lere came a far-away 

ul wh: - high above the 

tunder and the swish of the 

riding the people, sitting cowering 

the windows in a vain attempt 

.-. it was. The roaring grew louder 

'ii.l until the air was filled with 

•^ looked at one another with 

oud-burst came to Heppner — a solid 
; water, nearly tony feet high, 

is< s, f( m es, and human beings 
ts foan ■• ng destruction and 

its •'■.ike. 

Where Halm Fork flows into Willow Creek, 

the mmith of Balm Fork, there 

: . high, rocky promontory, against 

torrent, rushing down Balm Fork, 



.is though they were egg-shells, and hurling 
those which it did not completely crush down 
the \alley at railroad speed. 

Meanwhile the thunder rolled continually 
and the rain fell in torrents. The court-house 
k stopped at twenty minutes to six, and it 
is believed the shock of the liquid avalanche 
when it struck the rocky bluff in Willow Creek 
canyon jarred the entire town and stopped the 
clock. Be that as it may, the fact remains that 
the clock stopped at that time. 

The onslaught of that relentless torrent was 
so sudden that no one had time to even think 
of saving anything but themselves. One and 
all sought safety by flight to the nearest hills. 

In the upper part of the town those who 
were out in the streets or gardens were washed 
away and drowned, while those who took refuge 
in the second stories of their homes were 
carried away with their houses. Parents had 
their children torn from their arms, husbands 







LTLOCK, with the horse on - which he made his wild ride. 



[P/wto. 



with terrific fan e. Rebounding, it 

He] ''Her. 

which stood highest up the creek 

I the force of that awful 

nuddy water. They were swept 

bod their occupants were never 

have been a compact mass of 

itre of the current which 

kind of battering-ram, crushing the 

-• two-st , and business houses 



and wives were wrenched apart, never to see 
each other alive again. 

Those who reached the higher ground saw 
their children and their neighbours struggling in 
the mad waters and were unable to help them 
in any way. 

Screams of terror and cries for help were heard 
on all sides, and many were the almost miraculous 
escapes and brave rescues. 

The station agent, in spite of the fact that it 
was almost certain death to remain, nobly stayed 



A RACE WITH A CLOUD-BURST. 



213 



at his post, trying to telegraph a warning to 
Lexington and lone, two towns lower down the 
creek. Finding his efforts futile, however, he 
ran out, but was caught up in the swift current 
and drowned — a martyr to duty. 

But of all the brave deeds done that day — and 
there were many — the ride of Leslie Matlock and 
Bruce Kelly was the bravest. 

A few minutes before the flood reached the 
railway depot at the lower end of the town, a 
young stock - farmer named Leslie Matlock, 
accompanied by a friend, Bruce Kelly, rode out 
of some stables on the higher ground. 



rushing toward it ; and beyond that again was 
lone, while dotted about between were many 
scattered homesteads. To reach these and 
warn the people ere the flood struck them was 
what these two heroes were now straining every 
nerve to accomplish. 

On and on and on — over rough hillsides 
strewn with boulders, over gullies and ravines ; 
now dismounting to cut a wire, and then up and 
away again. Spurring their sweating horses, 
they rushed on through the night. Wherever a 
light twinkled through the driving rain, 
betokening the presence of a homestead, the 




THE TWO YOUNG MEN DASHED ONWARDS. 



" Good heavens ! " cried Matlock, as he gazed 
over the appalling scene of desolation behind 
him. " What about Lexington and lone ? Can 
we beat the flood and warn them ? " 

" We will try," said Kelly, laconically ; and 
so the enterprise began. Procuring a pair of 
wire-nippers to cut the barbed-wire fences which 
lay in their road, the dauntless pair galloped off 
on their wild ride ; and all who saw them 
thought they had gone to their deaths, for who 
could hope to outdistance that raging sea 
behind, sweeping onwards with relentless fury? 

Meanwhile the two young men dashed on- 
wards on their self-imposed mission of salvation. 
Lower down the valley lay the town of Lexing- 
ton, all unconscious of the awful fate even now 



riders made for it, and as they rushed by there 
came to the startled occupants the wild cry : 
" Run for your lives ! The cloud - burst is 



coming 



Families sitting quietly in their homes, 
listening to the roaring of the storm, heard 
that awful warning from out the blackness of 
the night. 

" Don't wait to save a thing ! To the hills for 
your lives!" And the steaming horses and 
their phantom riders were swallowed up in the 
gloom. But the roar of the flood, following 
swift behind, emphasized the fact that no time 
was to be lost. 

On and on and on ! Voice and rein and 
spur urged the horses forward, while ever the 






THE WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 



inded louder and 

'..rn the hap 

i fell with him 

he was up in a flash and 

. with an encouraging word to 

g i low-hanging tree 

oulders threatened to 

rom their saddles, and only 

d man and beast from 

g that wild ride through the 

I boulders encumbered the 

rushwood had to be leaped ; 

nihility of blunder- 

■'. ire fence at full gallop. But 

int did those intrepid men draw 

Full well they realized that five hundred 

■ 

'okeii between them as 
5, their lips set tight. 
5 Si IT g 1 : 

. a But ever 

and again one of the pair 



thev shouted. "The water is coming!" And 
the roaring behind corroborated their words and 
sent the frightened villagers scurrying to the 
safety oi the hills. 

On and on, mile after mile, through the dark- 
ness and the rain, went the flying horsemen, 
their rough path occasionally lighted by lurid 
Hashes of lightning, till finally the lights of 
Lexington came into view. Madly the 
messengers clattered down the quiet streets, for 
now they were but a few minutes ahead of the 
raging sea behind. " Heppner is washed away 
by a cloud-burst !" rang the terrible cry. "Flee 
for your lives ! To the hills, to the hills ! " 

As the people, with pallid faces and starting 
eyes, and tongues that asked questions which 
could not be answered, crowded out of 
their houses, the messengers dashed off 
again, for a long ride still lay before them. 
But the pace had been too much for 





his 
shou lacken- 

his headlong pa 

what h tded to see 

of the pursuing flood. 

ner and Lexington there were 

ma- -: farms i directly in 

• avalanche of water, but the wild 

' of the ' out the inmates in 

time to ame the small 

ght in the danger- 
zone, and int - aim the horsemen 
broke rude [*o the hills for your lives ! " 



HE CALLED FOR ANOTHER H 



Matlock's noble horse, and the poor beast 
fell exhausted. Many a man would have 
abandoned the enterprise at this point, deeming 
he had done enough, but not so the young 
stock-raiser. Loudly he called for another 
horse, and the moment it was brought he 
mounted and set off once more, for lone, with 
its two hundred and more inhabitants, still 
remained to be warned. 

This time the danger the two intrepid men 



A RACE WITH A CLOUD-BURST. 



"5 



ran was enhanced a hundred-fold. Hitherto 
they had had a way of escape open to them — 
the higher ground on their flank — should the 
flood overtake them, but in order to reach lone 
they had to follow the main road — the very 
track along which the waters were rushing 
towards them ! 

Few men would knowingly take such an 




PRESENTLY ANOTHER AND ANOTHER FIN-POINT OF LIGHT PIERCED THE GLOOM 



appalling risk, but these two young farmers 
never hesitated for a moment. 

At every ranch and farm they passed their 
ringing cry brought the people out, and one 
glance at the smoking horses, flecked with mud 
and foam, and their wild-eyed, dishevelled 
riders, showed the inhabitants the imminence of 
the danger. 

Would lone never come in sight ? Every 
moment the flood drew nearer, every moment 
the horses — stumbling and staggering over the 
rough track— grew more distressed, and still the 
little township was far away. Would they be 
overwhelmed and the town swept away ere the 
warning could reach it ? It must not be ! 

Faster, ever faster, the horses were urged, 
though the animals seemed instinctively to know 



what was required of them, and strained every 
nerve to outstrip the awful pursuer behind. 
Fortunately the valley widens out at this spot 
and the waters did not come along so swiftly. 

At last, through the driving rain, the anxious 
eyes of the leading horseman caught a 
momentary glimpse of a far away twinkle. Pre- 
sently another and another pin-point of light 
pierced the gloom. Hurrah ! 
lone was at hand, and the 
riders' voices urged their 
**., mounts to a final effort as 

;%i they thundered down the un- 

even road. 

So, drenched to the skin, 
breathless from their headlong 
pace, bruised all over from 
their falls and collisions with 
trees and boulders, and keep- 
ing in their saddles only with 
the greatest difficulty, Matlock 
and Kelly finally rode into 
lone, nineteen miles from 
Heppner, exactly one hour 
before the flood exhausted 
itself. 

The people were just gather- 
ing into the churches, but the 
hoarse- shouted warnings 
brought them hurrying out, 
and, as in Lexington, not a 
single life was lost. The two 
heroes had accomplished their 
task, for from lone onwards 
the telephone swiftly carried 
on the warning to Douglas 
and other places along the 
line of the flood. 

During the whole of that 

interminable night the villagers 

stayed on the bleak hillsides, 

anxiously praying for the dawn. 

With daylight came the realization of the 

terrible catastrophe which had befallen that once 

smiling valley. 

The residential section of Heppner had been 
simply wiped out, and the place where it had 
stood was covered deep with slimy mud. A 
hundred and fifty houses had vanished, not 
a board remaining to mark their site. The 
telegraph and telephone lines were entirely 
destroyed, and for nine miles the railway line 
was torn up, the stout steel rails being twisted 
into fantastic corkscrews. Every bridge was 
washed bodily away, and stout two-foot-thick 
tree-trunks were snapped like match-sticks. 

The toll of human life was fearful. At first 
it was reported that five hundred people had 
perished, but fortunately this was soon reduced 






THE WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 




i 

. :>-burst. 

to two hundred and fifty. 

A hundred and eighty 

bodice were recovered — 

them t w e 1 v e 

mil- . their homes 

- but many more were 

into the 

•nubia River 

• be found 

in. 

-on as the n< 
. the outside world 
ing- 
ton by rail and thenc 
tri 
; >a rt 
of thre- iou- 

sand n. 

in r g the d ' ris and 

in the melancholy task of 
searchi . ,d bur 

the dead. 

Money was ; :ito 

:th the uf 
liberality, and men, pro- 
nd clotl: 
re sent at one . 
n and hamlet in 
Oregon contributing its 
share. 



The whole country rang 
with the brave deed 
accomplished by Matlock 
and Kelly, but both men 
are as modest as they are 
brave and will talk but 
little concerning their 
wild race with the flood. 
Their heroism, however, 
will long be remembered 
by the people whose lives 
they saved, and the stir- 
ring story of their exploit 
will be handed down from 
father to son in the annals 
of the State. It is said 
that the national and State 
authorities intend to pre- 
sent both men with 
medals of honour com- 
memorating their ride ; 
and well they deserve it, 
for a braver deed was 
never done, either in the 
Old World or the New. 




Ftom a Photo.} 



-BURST— A HUNDRED AND FIFTY HOUSES WERE SWEPT 
■■•I HUNDRED AND FIFTY PEOPLE DROWNED. 



BODILY AWAY 

[by Sigsbee. 




V^M^ 



The story of what is perhaps the most remarkable voyage ever made by a ship. Although it lasted 
over two months it was not until the last day of the trip that the vessel floated in her natural element. 




HIS is the story of perhaps the most 
wonderful voyage ever taken by a 
ship. Although it lasted over two 
months, at no time did the vessel 
float in fresh or salt water, and 
seldom did she move her own length in a day, 
for this remarkable cruise was made entirely on 
land. 

Lightship No. 50, as she is called by the 
United States Government, holds the record 
for strange cruises. The one I am about 
to describe was made from sheer necessity. 
No. 50 is not an amphibious craft, intended to 
travel on sea or shore ; she was designed to 
warn mariners of the dangerous bar which 
stretches partly across the mouth of the great 
Columbia River in the State of Washington. 
This is one of the spots on the Pacific coast 
which is most dreaded by seamen, owing to 
the frequency of the storms and their awful 
violence. The bar itself is composed of sand, and 
at low tide only very small craft can pass over 
it. The ship channel is crooked and narrow, 
and the Government found it impossible to 
construct a lighthouse on shore which would 
properly mark its course, so No. 50 was built 
specially for this station. She is a stout, staunch 
craft, with a hull of heavy steel, else she could 

Vol. xii.— 28. 



never have made the curious journey referred 
to. She is one of the larger type of light- 
vessels, and on her two masts are fastened 
lanterns whose rays can be seen far away at sea 
even in thick weather. 

After building No. 50 the next question was 
how to fasten her so that she would not be 
moved out of her proper berth and thus deceive 
the sailor depending on her lights to enter the 
river. What are termed "mushroom " anchors, 
from their resemblance in form to this familiar 
vegetable, were cast especially for the purpose. 
To each was fastened two hundred and forty 
feet of chain, so heavy that each link represented 
as much weight as a strong man could lift, for 
the iron bars of which they were composed were 
no less than two inches in thickness. 

It was supposed that with such fastenings the 
ves. c el could easily ride out the heaviest gale, 
aided by the powerful steam-engines with which 
she was equipped, as well as a suit of sails. 
But one night the elements combined against 
No. 50, a gale setting in which blew at a rate of 
seventy -four miles an hour, according to the 
instruments of the weather observer stationed 
on the coast. It piled up the waters of the 
Pacific in waves which reached far above the 
deck of the vessel and forced the crew to seek 






THE WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 



I the lightship 
and tinally the strain was 
ichor chains to 
■ if made oi wire. 
a full h< steam to be 

was made to work away 
. ::i. Slowly but surely 
\ what is known as 

.t pile o\ rock which would 
und her to pieces, and where it 
n impossible for one of the crew 
ishore alive. Seeing this danger, 
mmander gave orders to steer for a little 
i near the mouth of the river. Mean- 
pie on shore had seen the vessels 
.uid two powerful steamships 
I to her assistance. Although ropes 
from them to No. 50 nothing 



she was stranded is composed of sand so soft 
that the great weight of the vessel forced her 
into it. Day after day she sank deeper and 
deeper undl, by the time arrangements had been 
made to pull her back into the water, nearly half 
the hull had disappeared from view, and No. 50 
was literally buried in the beach. 

While the engineers believed the lightship 
could be raised after considerable trouble, the 
problem of floating her was far more difficult. 
The waves which had carried her ashore were 
of such size as to make the ocean navigable 
where in calm weather it is scarcely deep 
enough to float a row-boat. At this point a 
person can wade nearly a quarter of a mile into 
the ocean before becoming entirely submerged, 
and to secure sufficient depth of water to 
float the vessel, which draws twelve feet, it 




From a] 



THE LIGHTSHIP AS SHE APPEARED AFTER EEING DRIVEN ASHORE. 



[Photo. 



woi. rain in the awful sea, and the 

lines soon parted, the relief ships being obliged 

k to the harbour to save themselves. 

■ nee to save the lives of those 

on board, the bow of the lightship was again 

tun ird the beach and she was driven 

far up it by the force of the waves and the full 

power of her ei .An idea of the power of 

ne can be gained when it is stated 

hat after the storm -hip was left 

hundred feet from the 

tunately no lives were lost. 

A ied an examination 

.'.hull had been but little 

damaged even by this rough experience, and 

the question arose as to the best way to get the 

~1 into her natural element again. It 

happened that the part of the beach upon which 



would be necessary to go out nearly a mile. 
The idea of making a channel was considered, 
but, as it would be filled with sand almost as 
rapidly as it could be excavated, the scheme 
had to be abandoned. Several other plans were 
considered, but all were proved to be impractic- 
able, and the Government officials had almost 
decided to abandon the rescue of the ship 
when someone proposed the idea of a land 
voyage. 

The beach on which No. 50 rested forms part 
of a peninsula, on one side of which is the 
ocean and on the other side Baker's Bay. The 
water of the bay is so deep close to the shore 
that once upon this side the vessel could be 
slid into its waters with little difficulty ; but the 
question was how to get her across the country. 

It was indeed no ordinary undertaking. First 



THE DRY-LAND VOYAGE OF LIGHTSHIP 



"5°." 



219 




THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE OVERLAND JOURNF.V — CETT1NG T 
Fro/ua] CRADLE. 

she must be dug out of the bed of sand, and 
then started on a journey through an extensive 
forest, over several quite large hills, and across 
a swamp before reaching her destination. A 
great tunnel must be made through the wood- 
land by cutting down 
trees and removing 
underbrush, a path- 
way had to be con- 
structed over the 
marsh, and the task 
of removing logs, 
boulders, and other 
obstacles on the route 
required the services 
of a small army of 
men. After carefully 
considering the mat- 
ter, however, the 
engineers decided 
that this was the only 
plan, if the vessel was 
to be saved. The 
first thing to be done 
was to secure the 
necessary power, and 
a score of teams of 
powerful horses were 
secured from the 
vicinity, as well as a 
corps of workmen 



armed with 
crowbnrs, sho- 
vels, and axes. 
Enough timber 
to build a ship 
was needed for 
the artificial bed 
on which to 
place the vessel, 
and this was 
secured from 
adjacent towns, 
together with 
miles of rope 
and chain need- 
ed to keep her 
upright on her 
journey and pull 
her along. 
Several weeks 
were required 
for these pre- 
parations. Then 
a force of men 
was placed at 
work to dig out 
the ship. It was 
necessary not 
only to make a great hole in the beach, but to 
clear the inside of the vessel, for the force of the 
gale which drove her ashore, and other storms 
which had occurred since she was stranded, had 
filled the hull itself with sand. This was taken 



HE VESSEL ON TO HER TRAVELLING 

[Photo. 




A NEAR VIEW OF THE MULTITUDE 



OF CABLES AND CHAINS WHICH HAULED THE LIGHTSHIP ALONG. 

From a Photo, by J. F. Ford. 



THE WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 



- much as possible. 
h had been di that the 

ivs were 

tnd in this way the mass 

higher until it was on a 

He was being con- 

a framework o\ heavy 

: a number of small wheels. 

n which the ship was to make 
,1. The formation of a suit- 
die, however, was one of 
- me portions of the 
rm and level that the wheels 
without sinking in. but for a 
nee what might lie called a 



to her new resting-place. Now she was ready 
for her novel voyage. The windlasses were 
moved to tin- pathway in front of die ship, and 
the lines and also a big chain were attached. 
This chain was so heavy that to keep it from 
ging on the ground it was supported high 
in the air on a wooden framework and passed 
over fjulleys in order to prevent friction. To 
the chain were attached a dozen of the most 
powerful horses, and these formed the principal 
motive power. 

At first the progress made was very slow, 
sometimes less than fifty feet being covered in a 
day, for the utmost care had to be observed to 
prevent the vessel from toppling over or being 
hauled off the cradle. There were places where 




m 









• ■■-. EMERGING FROM THE WOODS. 



{Photo. 



had to be constructed of timbers 

. plank the top in order to afford 

a si: mooth and hard, while the 

".he hillocks had to be cut away in order 

that th- I climb these ascents. 

i raised she was moved 

in this way : Huge 

t driven deep 

distributed round about 

h extended a cable which 

rt of the ship. Each 

windlass was revolved by two or four 

powerful 1. When the lines had been 

mac at the command of the superin 

tendent the dr the horses started them, 

and inch by ued round on 



the roadway sank into the ground under the 
great weight, and had to be propped more 
securely before the craft could pass over it. 
The ascent of some of the hillocks formed one 
of the most difficult portions of the work, and 
the roadway through the woods was so narrow 
in places that the trees on either side almost 
touched the hull, so that it was necessary for 
those in charge to "steer" a very straight 
course. But, nothing daunted by the obstacles, 
the navigators on this singular voyage kept to 
their task. A month passed, and they had the 
satisfaction of knowing that they had gone 
half-way across the peninsula. 

The progress was celebrated by dressing the 
vessel with the flags of all nations in honour of 



THE DRY-LAND VOYAGE OF LIGHTSHIP 



"50/' 



221 




NO. 50 DRESSED WITH FLAGS IN HONOUR OF THE SUCCF. 

From a] half of the "voyage." 

the event, and a banquet was held on board. 
Again a start was made, and at last the welcome 
sight of Baker's Bay greeted them. Arriving at 
the beach which formed their destination, a 
launching-way was constructed of planking, 
which extended into the water far enough to 
float the ship. The top of the way was 
thoroughly greased, and with the aid of several 
powerful tug-boats No. 50 was pulled from her 



cradle and slid into 
her natural element 
amid the cheering of 
thousands of people, 
who had gathered to 
witness the end of 
the voyage, and the 
whistles of the 
steamers. 

The manner in 
which this curious 
cruise was made 
would be called by 
sailors "warping." 
The windlasses were 
used to aid the horses 
in pulling on the 
lines, the arms of 
the windlasses acting 
as levers. As they 
were turned they 
wound up the cables 
and pulled the ship 
forward to this 
extent. As soon as 
the cable was reeled 
in it would be dis- 
connected from the 
windlass, which would 
be moved forward and the operation repeated. 
The voyage, considering its length, is probably 
the costliest on record, for in all it cost the 
United States Government about thirty-five 
thousand dollars — almost as much as the 
outlay for feeding the thousands of people 
on a Transatlantic liner and paying her 
other expenses during a trip from America 
to Europe and back. 



SSFUI. ACCOMPLISHMENT OF ONE- 

[Photo 




From a] 



THE ENP OF THE JOURNPY — THE LIGHTSHIP READY FOR LAUNCHING IN DEEP WATER AGAIN. 



[Photo, 



THE "GLORY-HOLE" GOOSE. 



V-\ B. Minto Wade. 

ig the adventures of a goose that went astray. The author writes: "All 
si ppressed, but the dialogue is almost a verbatim report of what 
the accuracy of the story I can vouch absolutely." 




AN< ayed Mr. K> 

of the Monaghan y 

I right aft, were enjoy- 

a spell before 

turning in. When the exhausted 

at or squatted on 

Limed their pipes Mr. Keggs 

itle entertainment by accompany- 

ng. 

call a bit of real playin'," 

aky," who, it was alleged, was so 

thin that the wind." 

•• It his as gi id as his playin', 

uldn't we, ' Streaky ' ? " 



fltfflPV 




KR, KEGGS WOC- EY ACCOMPANYING HIMSELF AS HE 



remarked Tinkler, the second steward, in the 
thin man's ear, and giving him a wink and a 
nudge at the same time. 

But Keggs's quick ears had caught the con- 
temptuous words and he fired up instantly. 
"What's the mattei with my cookin', anyway?" 
he demanded. 

" It's all wrong for us — on Sundays, anyhow — 
whatever it may be for the saloon durin' the 
week, when the passengers is mostly too sick to 
notice anythink," was the candid reply. And 
then he added, maliciously, " But p'r'aps it's 
that what turns 'em up." 

" Here, stow that ! " exclaimed Mr. Keggs ; 
_ " I've forgot more about cookin' than 
you ever learnt." 

" Forgotten all of it, most likely," was 
the unflattering rejoinder. " Why," he 
continued, darkly, "I notice that the old 
man and the chief and the purser have 
all on 'em fallen off their feed, and the 
old man's losin' his complexion fast — 
not to mention his temper. Take my 
advice, Keggs ; sign off the galley and go 
back to the pantry. You're a first-rate 
pantry-man, I'll allow, but you're a mighty 
poor cook ! " And he puffed at his pipe 
with an air of one who has settled the 
question. 

" You get me some decent stuff to 
cook, you paralytic saloon-swabber," ex- 
ploded the enraged Keggs, "an' I'll cook 
it ! If I was well found, you'd be well 
found ! " which logical argument he defied 
anyone to dispute. 

" It's a shockin' poor com- 
missariat, an' that's true," 
sighed " Streaky." " I've 
been livin' on my imagina- 
tion ever since poor old Jim 
signed off. I feel I'm gittin' 
weaker an' weaker ; I'm 
bein' gradually transformed 
into a walkin' phantom." 

" You puts good grub into 
a bad skin, that's 'ow it is," 
the cook assured him, sulkily. 
" Time to turn in, boys, if 
we want any sleep," warned 
Mr. Tinkler, "for we'll have 
to show a leg pretty early. 
Tomorrow'll be a busy day." 
And the second steward 
made a move below, 



THE "GLORY -HOLE" GOOSE. 



223 



" Keggs,' said he, turning to the cook, with a 
serious expression, " for goodness' sake do give 
the boys a bit of a treat — I'm sick of their 
growling." 

Presently they all went below, and the 
Monaghan, under the eye of a solitary watch- 
man, swung on her cable in the tideway. 

On the Saturday morning following there was 
a tremendous rush for places on the famous 
commodore boat by passengers bound for 
Watertown. Peter, Keggs's lieutenant, seated 
in the dark alley-way near the galley door, was 
busy scraping potatoes, and, spurred by the 
scathing remarks of Keggs within, hurried to 
complete his task. 

Presently Peter looked up and saw a man 
who had just struggled across the gangway and 
was now staring about him in that wondering 
and surprised way that one generally associates 
with the rustic mind. The man carried a 
hamper from which, Peter noticed, there pro- 
truded a few white and grey feathers ; and from 
the fact that the basket quivered convulsively 
every now and then the galley-boy concluded 
that the contents were alive. Peter promptly 
became highly interested in the countryman, 
and assumed a gratuitous guardianship over 
him, of which the said countryman, Mr. Reuben 
Stirk, was blissfully unaware. 

Outside the harbour the sea was decidedly 
lumpy, and the Monaghan began to kick her 
heels in a way that surprised Mr. Stirk and 
filled him with feelings of regret. 

The basket of which he took such tender 
care became a nuisance, so he staggered, with 
much difficulty, under the bridge, and de- 
posited it in an obscure corner amidst some 
nondescript articles. Then he retired to a 
place of observation where the air was fresher 
than it was near the engine-room. 

He returned several times to assure himself of 
the safety of his precious charge, but these visits 
grew fewer as the sea increased, which it did 
rapidly, causing the Monaghan to conduct herself 
in a very indelicate manner. Finally, Mr. Stirk 
abandoned the basket to its fate. He also 
abandoned his present happiness and future 
prospects, and with a groan subsided in abject 
misery into the lee-scuppers, where he sank into 
a merciful state of temporary oblivion. 

Mr. Stirk, without the slightest effort of his 
own. made several trips, in a diagonal direction, 
across the deck, until he was brought up with a 
round turn by a kindly sailor. All this time 
Peter had kept one eye on Mr. Stirk and the 
other on the basket ; and when a big green sea 
popped over the side and, rushing under the 
bridge, carried all the loose gear before it, 
including the basket, he was not in the least 



surprised. Neither was he surprised when the 
basket-lid somehow flew open and the 
imprisoned tenant, with a hoarse kind of 
chuckle, scrambled drunkenly on to the stream- 
ing deck. But when the escaped captive, after 
a brief and uncertain survey of strange sur- 
roundings, actually flopped in an ungainly 
fashion through the temporarily open door 
of the cook's larder Peter was genuinely 
astonished, and, looking upon the incident as 
quite providential, promptly closed the door, for 
he was afraid that such unlooked-for beneficence 
might be rescinded. Then he told the cook of 
the occurrence. 

" The very thing ! " said Mr. Keggs ; " it'll be 
a fair treat ! " 

" It's our professional salvation," responded 
Peter, with his funny, wheezy laugh. " We'll 
show the ' glory-hole ' what we can do." 

Mr. Stirk's only anxiety was to escape from 
the treacherous deck of the Monaghan, and 
when that good ship bumped alongside of 
Watertown pier Reuben was among the first to 
stagger across the gangway to terra-firma. It 
was not until he stood on the pier that he 
remembered his charge, and then it was too late 
to return through the press that was surging 
shorewards. He had to wait, and when he got 
on board once more the basket was empty ! 

Mr. Stirk appealed to the first person he saw, 
who happened to be the bo'sun. 

" Gone ! d'ye say ? " said the old shellback. 
" Well, now I come to think of it, I seed several 
pigeon-fliers come aboard, and some of 'em let 
their birds off just outside the Head. P'r'aps 
yours was one ? " 

" It wasn't a pigeon, it was a " began 

Mr. Stirk, but someone called for the bo'sun, 
and he hurried forward. 

All was confusion ; no one seemed to have 
time to pay Mr. Stirk any attention. At last he 
told a man who seemed to be in authority, but 
he only laughed unfeelingly. " Did you give it 
in charge of the purser, or anybody?" he in- 
quired. 

"N— no," replied Reuben, "I didn't. I 
thought I'd look after it myself, but it's gone, 
seemingly." 

" Then we are not responsible," the man 
decided, turning away to address someone else. 

Had Mr. Stirk looked into the little room 
built out on the port sponson he would have 
been surprised — and so would Peter Whalin, 
who, very busy, had been there the greater part 
of the afternoon. 

Reuben, an entire stranger to Watertown, was 
some little time in arriving at his destination — 
the house of a Mr. Corkhill. He felt a great 
disinclination to visit that gentleman at all, 






THE WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 



f 




! II HE FIRST 1 I I SAW 

•hnt his gift of propitiation had so 

red. Truth to tell, he 

made a call ral calls, in fact— to fortify the 

inner man. much di d both in body 

ntly his i ourage returned, 
[uite a jaunty air he approached the 
house. 

lill answered the door himself, and 
Reuben was much taken aback when he recog- 
i him the man who had so cruelly 
ed at his 1 

Mi ' rkhill ? ' : he stammered. 
I am,'' said the official. " What d'ye 
war 

'ha sheepish grin, 
■ I -"mi n Stirk, your daughter Martha's 

2 an." 

lied Mr. Corkhill, rather stiffly. 

rk, "an' Martha an' me 

it you, an' she says to me, 



she savs, ' Why not go over to Watertown an' 
sec our folk ? ' An' I said, ' Why not ? ' ' An' 
tak' a bit of a present with yer,' she says." 

" Come in, come in," invited Mr. Corkhill, his 
fa< e brightening visibly. " Hannah ! Hannah !" 
he called to his wife, " here's our Martha's 
young man called to see us and brought 
us a present." Mrs. Corkhill, followed 
by several curious- eyed youngsters, at 
once hurried into the parlour and was 
introducea, 

"And the present?" anxiously in- 
quired Corkhill, after what he thought 
was a decent interval. 

" It's — it's gone," replied 

Reuben, sadly shaking his head. 

"Gone!" exclaimed Mr. 

Corkhill, his jaw dropping. 

" Sure as yesterday ; flew 

taway, I think." 
^^^ " Flew away ! Why, what 

▼ was it ? " 

"Ay," continued Mr. Stirk, 
without directly answering the 
question, "as fine a one as 
ever I raised ; weighed fourteen 
pound. It must have got out 
somehow." 

" Why," exclaimed Corkhill, 
a sudden light dawning upon 
him, "you are the very man 
who complained to me on the 
boat of having lost something, 
I believe." 

" I believe I am," said Mr. 
Stirk, plucking up spirit, "an' 
I believe you didn't seem to 
be much concerned about it. 
If I remember right, you 
seemed to think it a good joke." 

" I — I — I'm very sorry," assured Corkhill. " I 
didn't know it was for — so serious, I mean. 
How did it escape ? " 

"That's what I want to know," replied 
Reuben. " I know I fastened the basket." 

"Isn't Keggs comin' down to breakfast?'' 
inquired the second steward of Peter, as he was 
serving the coffee in the " glory -hole."* 

The galley-boy wore an air of profound mys- 
tery, winking solemnly at each man in turn. 
" Och ! ' he answered, with one of his queer, 
choking laughs, " the cook an' me had our 
breakfases in the galley an hour since ; an' it's 
there Mr. Kiggs is now, preparin' a faste for you 
all that'll set your mouths waterin' for a month 
wid the recolliction of it." 

This set the whole table agog wit h curiosity, 

* Ship-stewards' mess-room. 






THE "GLORY -HOLE" GOOSE. 



225 



but Peter declined to say more. He contented 
himself with shaking his head knowingly and 
uttering sepulchral noises. 

Being Sunday the crew were ashore at their 
homes, all excepting the stewards, and they, 
with the addition of the purser — who, with the 
aloofness befitting his superior rank, kept to his 
room on the bridge — -had the Munaghan to 
themselves. In vain they sought to elucidate 
the mystery, but the cook and Peter would 
permit no one to come near the galley, threaten- 
ing to douse with hot water any man who dared 
to pass the main-hatch. 

At last, amid much enthusiasm, the dinner 
was served. Never before had there been such 
a feast in the "glory-hole" of the Monaghan, 
and when, to wind up, a monster plum-pudding, 
with brandy-sauce, was set upon the table with a 
flourish by the grinning Peter, Mr. Keggs gazed 
upon the company with a smile of triumph. 

" The rations on this yer packet's improvin' a 
good deal," graciously allowed " Streaky," " an' 
my heart warms towards you, Mister Keggs, with 
the friendliest sentimints." Even the dignified 
purser so far unbent as to send down word that 
he had never tasted a better dinner. 

" Oh, I beg your pardon, purser; I didn't 







Vol. xii.— 29. 



'a monster plum-pudding was set upon the table. 



know you were at dinner," said Mr. Corkhill, the 
shore-steward. 

" It's all right, Corkhill ; I'm just finished," 
replied the purser, at the same time pushing 
away his plate and uttering a sigh of content. 
He then observed to the shore-steward that the 
quality of the rations supplied on the Monaghati 
had a distinctly upward tendency. " If to-day's 
menu be any criterion," he said, " I shall dine 
aboard on Sundays instead of ashore — at this 
end of the trip, at any rate." 

Mr. Corkhill eyed the fragments of rich 
pudding suspiciously, and then hazarded, 
" What were the other courses, if I might be 
so bold?" 

"There was only one," replied the purser: 
"roast goose and trimmings, and as fine a bird 
as ever I tasted." 

" Roast goose ! " ejaculated Mr. Corkhill, 
with a meaning glance at Reuben, who accom- 
panied him. 

" That's what I said," remarked the purser, 
with a look of inquiry. "It's a bit early in the 
season, I allow, but none the less enjoyable, 
and a credit to the cook." 

" I bet that was mv goose ! " burst out Mr. 
Stirk. 

An explanation followed ; but instead of the 
sympathy that Mr. Corkhill desired, and 
evidently expected, the callous purser 
gave vent to a peal of merri- 
ment. He chuckled and 
laughed until 
his fat sides 
shook like a 
shuddering 
wind-sail ; he 
slapped his 
thighs and 
roared until 
the tears 
coursed down 
his jolly old 
face, and in 
choking ac- 
cents declared 
it was the best 
joke he'd 
heard f o r 
many a day. 

"You're an 
unfeeling 
man ! " shouted 
Corkhill, wrath- 
ful^. 

"N — not so," 
spluttered the 
purser, going into 
another hurricane 









THE WIDE W0R1 D MAGAZINE. 






• i i v much! Ha, 

tly out oi the 

* l.u mcJ, 

practical jest— 

and he knew that, 

. he would be a butt 

ol the Packet 

re. 

to do now ? " inquired 
Mi I lorkhill, as he 
cross the bridge. 
What can we ^ ? " cried Cork- 
laughing stock for the 

. for he 

Mr. K ggs and Peter on 
-. bearing 
e remains of the 
I 

he 
■ up here. 

• _ lley-boy 

and, 

their burdens 

ime up 

the n and s 

awful majt - 
the >rd. 

•• W i.ere did you [ 

u cooked and 

hel: eat to-day ? " he 

-mg the cook 

K- v trans- 

lity 

he 
about 



said Corkhill, sternly, indicating Mr. Stirk, " and 
you, Peter, are a common thief." 

"Och,.sir!" exclaimed Peter, incredulous 
amazement stamped on his face. "Sure I 
thought it was a wild, wild bird, seein' as there 
was no farmyard in the neighbourhood ! An' as 
for bein' a thief, it was the bird itself that was 
the transgrissor, seein' it was gobblin' " 

"Silence ! " roared Mr. Corkhill. "The pair 
of you will have to pay damages," he ordered, 
" or I'll dock it from your wages." 




ma: ' >rkhill, fixing him with a severe eye, 

-u know about it?'' 

ly thi- honour," explained the 

- 1 tly. " When we was about 

toss the passage I was 

an' surprised to find a big bird a-floppin' 

the larder. It was reelin' an' backin' 

something cruel, »o I wrung its neck to 

:m' that's all I know about it, 

that it lindid dinner for the 

ed, with a most deliberate 

and confidential wink, " it saved the company's 

• 

> this gentleman here," 



BTER,' DEMANDED CORKHIU., 'WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT IT?' 



There was an awful row in the galley that 
afternoon. " That comes o' stealin', you Water- 
town rat!" complained Mr. Keggs, smarting 
under the imposition. 

" Hold yer wishtj you soup-boilin' swab," 
scathingly observed Peter; "didn't I give you 
the chance of your life ? " 

Thus they slanged each other, and finally 
fought, both emerging from the fray considerably 
damaged. Afterwards no one dared so much 
as to sniff within yards of the galley, and to cry 
" Quack " was to raise a storm. But it will be a 
long time before that goose will be forgotten in 
the "giory-hole" of the Monaghan. 



AMONG THE BOOBIES. 



By Captain Boyd Alexander, Rifle Brigade. 

II. 

The Boobies are a strange race of savages living in the little - known interior of the Island 01 
Fernando Po, off the West Coast of Africa. The author recently visited these curious people, and 

describes his experiences in the accompanying article. 




travelling 



NOTHER two days' 
brought us to Lakka, a large cocoa 
plantation belonging to Messrs. 
Holt and managed by Mr. Mays- 
more, who showed us much kind- 
ness. The Protestant missionary, Mr. Barley- 
corn, lent me one of his Booby boys as an 
interpreter, and this lessened our previous 
difficulties considerably. After a day's rest 
we started off to 
reach the village of 
Bakaki, where I 
hoped to ascend the 
mountain. The 
path was very diffi- 
cult, leading down 
constantly into steep 
ravines and through 
swift-flowing streams. 
In many places we 
had to cut our way, 
the rate of travel- 
ling being seldom 
more than one mile 
an hour. We pushed 
through dark forest 
growth skirting the 
cultivation of the 
island, into which 
the path now and 
again dipped towards 
the sea, where the 
sunlight and open 
view again cheered 
us. Innumerable 
palm trees dotted 
the sloping ground 
below us, with occa- 
sional gigantic 
cotton trees, whose 
white stems stood 
out sharply against 
the blue sea. 

Another day and a march through drenching 
rain brought us to Bakaki. In this district we 
found another race of Boobies, speaking a 
different dialect and further distinguished by 
tribal cuts on the face. The men generally 
have four on each side of the face, reaching 




From a} 



A BOOBY CHIEI 



from the nose to the ear. A large number of 
fowls are reared by these Boobies. We con- 
tinually came across them in the woods a long 
way from any habitation. 

There are at least five distinct groups of 
Boobies, which is remarkable, considering the 
small populated area of the island. But the 
reason is not far to seek. The Booby is a 
wonderfully stay-at-home creature. I constantly 

came across old men 
and women who had 
never been outside 
their own villages, 
and, taking into 
account the moun- 
tainous nature of the 
island, it is easy to 
see how the race 
has split into groups. 
The Booby appears 
to have migrated 
from the mainland 
about four hundred 
years ago, where he 
belonged to the in- 
digenous race of 
Bantus, who reached 
the Cameroons from 
the East at some 
unknown epoch. 
These curious 
people do not over- 
burden themselves 
with names, having 
no Christian names 
at all. One man 
will call another 
"bubi" should he 
want to attract his 
attention, which in 
English means 
" men." Again, their 
country is divided up 
into districts, each having three towns, and each 
town bearing the same name as the district. 

Bakaki is merely a collection of native huts 
at the foot of the big mountain. The natives 
here showed more confidence in us, and the 
fact of having an interpreter made all the 



[Photo. 






rill: WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 



round us and watched 

I, with wonder ; but what 

than anything else were 

l'luv could not make out how 
■it up. 

all the men came and danced 

y the least, it was a curious 

mi-circle was formed, and the 

l their hands, commenced 

I a few words over 

i ipori," they chanted, 



huts, shouting lustily "Yo sa ipori," "Yo sa 
ipori." 

Each village has its dancing-green just out- 
side the range of huts, consisting of a square 
level clearing in the bush, and here their orgies 
are held. It is extraordinary how fond these 
people are of drink. They only live to drink 
and smoke, and their excesses are fast enfeebling 
them as a race. The mischief has greatly in- 
creased since the importation of German gin, 
which is nothing more than liquid fire. There 



fBS^f: 




wh We hid you 

hole while 

iternately with either foot. Now 

ild leave the ring and dance 

hers. 

did not mean to do this for 

oon asked for gin and, still 

g, the bottle in turn was 

j mouth. The effect was 

grew louder and 

ncing more frenzied, till it culminated in 

i general scramble to drink the last dregs of 

es, and then they tailed off to their 



VO SA Il'ORI,' THEY CHANTED. 



is hardly a hut that does not 
contain one or more demi- 
johns of this terrible spirit, 
which the natives receive from the traders in 
exchange for the little cocoa that they cultivate. 
Apart from the gin, they go in hot and strong 
for palm wine, or "topi" as they call it. To 
keep a Booby away for a single day from his 
palm wine is to make him wretched. As regular 
as clockwork they go to their palm trees, which 
are all parcelled out and owned by the different 
families. To encroach upon the palm tree of 
another would be a terrible thing in their eyes. 
About five o'clock in the afternoon the villages 



AMONG THE BOOBIES. 



229 



are deserted. Each family troops off in Indian 
file, little children, weighed down with cala- 
bashes, following the older members. They 
return at dusk with the precious wine. To 
obtain it the fibrous head of the tree is cut 
away on one side, into which is driven a piece 
of metal tubing, the other end of the tube being 
inserted into the neck of a gourd. This taps 
the tree, and the palm wine trickles into the 
gourd during the day. The native ascends the 
tree with the help of a bamboo hoop, elliptical 
in shape. This he passes 
round the tree-trunk and 
the lower part of his 
back, and the hoop is 
then fastened by a loop 
knot on one side. Lean- 
ing back, his feet against 
the tree, he commences 
to climb, shifting the 
hoop as he proceeds 
with his hands. 

Having put the natives 
into a good mood, I 
asked their chief the 
next day for a guide to 
take me to the top of 
the " big hill," at the 
same time showing him 
a barrel of gunpowder 
as a present. After 
much talking he re- 
turned with other men, 
and said they were not 
fit to take me up, saying 
it was their country, 
and they did not want 
us to go and build 
houses up there. This 
was annoying, after all 
the gin and presents I 
had given away the 
night before. 

The only thing to do 
was to find the best 
way myself, so I started 
off with one of my 
carriers, and with the 

aid of my prismatic compass took a north- 
westerly direction. As luck would have it, I 
stumbled upon one of the Booby hunting- 
paths which maintained pretty well the required 
bearing, eventually leading to a small open 
hut at a height of about six thousand feet. 
Now and again when the mist cleared off the 
point of the peak was just visible high above 
us. The hut appeared to be as far as the 
Boobies had gone on their hunting expeditions, 
since no sign of any track could be found 




THE NATIVE ASCENDS THE 
A BAMBOO 



farther on. I therefore decided to make 
this place my base camp, and, well satis- 
fied with my day's work, returned to Bakaki. 
I was met by the chief, who, seeing that the 
game was up, offered to take me to the " big 
hill " in return for the barrel of gunpowder. 
I told him, however, that his services were 
not required, and his chagrin was great when 
he saw that he had lost the precious gunpowder. 
The next day, towards evening, I arrived 
safely at the hut with all my carriers. Just 

before debouching into 
the open space from the 
narrow track, two pieces 
of stick, black and 
rotten-looking, had been 
stuck into the ground. 
My Booby boy ex- 
claimed anxiously, 
" Master no touch ; bad 
Ju-ju." He then spat 
upon them and threw 
them away into the 
bush. This, he said, 
"killed Ju-ju." My 
collector, greatly 
amused, took up another 
of these ill-omened 
sticks. " You go die ! 
You go die ! " ejaculated 
the boy, who seemed 
greatly astonished at our 
callousness. The Booby 
believes in an evil spirit, 
and this curi us " Ju-ju " 
of rotten wood from a 
certain tree is planted 
at the places he is sup- 
posed to haunt. Any- 
one touching these 
spirit-sticks sickens and 
dies. 

We stayed- two days 
at the hut, busy the 
whole time collecting. 
Most of our rare and 
new species were ob- 
tained in this locality. 
On the third day, much to my disappointment, I 
found I had to return to Bakaki, as my collector 
was by no means well and was threatened with 
an attack of fever. The Boobies could not 
conceal their satisfaction. The "Ju-ju" was 
working— I had failed to reach the peak, and 
my collector would soon die. After a two days' 
rest, however, he got well enough, although still 
weak, to continue our march to Bilelipi, when I 
determined again to attempt the ascent of the 
peak. On our route we constantly traversed 



TREE WITH THE HELP OF 
HOOP." 






THE WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 



ief (ood o( the 

'.ion, tin v suit 

- well. In the gathering 

all placed in a square 

ane just outside the 




) |ACULATED THE BOY. 



lelipi my chances of success seemed 

by hunters were found willing 

to take the peak. Accordingly, on the 

r ations for an early start were 

A hea> hung round everything, 

and the outline of the lofty range was hardly 

n headed our column as pioneers 

Jt a road. Our loads had to be greatly 

reduced in . while ten carriers were told 

off I ,f water. It did not take 

for u ne drenching wet as we 

it our way through the thick forest growth, 

th moisture. Our progress was 

•• track, little frequented 

as much overgrown, and 

ixe and 5 had to be u- ntly. 

In man; the path led through tunnels of 



impenetrable thicket. It was hopeless to cut 
this away, so we had to crawl through on hands 
and feet, the loads being passed on from one 
carrier to another. 

About one o'clock we reached a small Booby 
hut. The distance to this 
place could not have been 
more than three miles, yet it 
took us seven hours to reach. 
The hovel, which was 
merely a roof of leaves, 
served as shelter to the 
carriers, while a space in the 
forest close by was cleared 
for my tent. The carriers 
were literally done up, so 
the whole of the next day 
was given over to rest. My 
hunters took advantage of 
this and went off into the 
forest, bringing back towards 
evening two grey duikers and 
several tree squirrels. It was 
extraordinary to see with 
what avidity they ate these 
small mammals, hardly giving 
time for the meat to be 
cooked through. As long 
as the hair was burnt off it 
was sufficient for them ; the 
blackened carcass was torn in 
pieces and eaten, skin and all. 
From this camp our ascent 
was more difficult. The way 
became so steep and rough 
that all loads over twenty 
pounds had to be discarded 
and tents abandoned. Water, 
too, had to be carried. We 
could still hear the murmur 
of the rivers below us, the 
last of which had been crossed 
many hours ago. No longer having tents, we 
slept the next night under a covering of leaves. 
That was the worst night of all. We shivered 
through our blankets, the damp cold seemed to 
penetrate everything, and the carriers huddled 
together for warmth, in spite of the cordon of 
fires. 

For a long time I remained awake. The 
great, lonely mountain was wrapt in mysterious 
silence, broken now and again by the frenzied 
cry of the flying squirrel. The fires had burnt 
to embers, and the carriers slept heavily. 

Suddenly, without the slightest warning, every 
man was on his feet yelling with pain. Many 
rushed madly into the forest beating their bodies 
frantically. The whole place was alive and 
black with driver ants ! The bites of these 



AMONG THE BOOBIES. 



231 



ferocious insects cause terrible pain, like the 
burning of hot coals. It was not long before 
some sort of order was restored, when sticks 
were cut and the embers of the fires scattered 
over the ground. A few minutes after not an 
ant was to be seen. The next morning naturally 
the carriers were not in the best of tempers. 

" Master, Fernando Po no good, we go die," 
was a remark continually addressed to me ; and 
it was only by offering each a " dash " (present) 




EVERY MAN WAS ON HIS FEET YELLING Willi PAIN. 



of five shillings if the top of the hill was reached 
that they once more took up their loads. 

At a height of six thousand feet we found the 
kola nut. The carriers picked them up greedily. 
This was fortunate, as my supplies were running 
short. From time to time the sun would break 
through the mists that swept over us. Then we 
had glimpses of what looked like a fairy-land. 
In the beautiful valley below, tree ferns six feet 
high and with great trunks flourished luxuri- 
antly. Then came flat expanses of tree-tops of 
variegated tints, and, far beyond, the quiet sea. 
But these glimpses were soon succeeded by 
periods of darkness and heavy mist. The day- 



light was obscured, the dreary twilight of the 
forest became more depressing, and the birds 
were silent. 

Towards afternoon the ground became less 
steep, and sudden gusts of a chilly wind from 
the north-west struck our faces. Our labours 
were ended. The peak, after a toil of four 
days, had been successfully ascended. 

The descent lasted two days. On Novem- 
ber 29th we reached Banterbari Beach, where 

Messrs. Holt have a 
store and cocoa farm. 
Mr. Blissett, their repre- 
sentative, gave us much 
assistance, putting at our 
disposal one of the surf- 
boats belonging to the 
farm to take us to Port 
St. Isabel. The only 
means of communication 
between the different 
farms on the island is 
by these surf-boats, 
which are manned by 
Sierra Leone natives. 
There are no roads in 
the interior, only native 
tracks which I have 
already described. 

On December 5th, 
with tattered clothes 
and worn-out boots, we 
arrived at Port St. Isabel, 
and were glad to get a 
change of attire. A day 
or two later the ss. Oron 
arrived on her home- 
ward journey, and by 
her I left for England, 
leaving behind my col- 
lector, Mr. Lopes, to 
work the southern por- 
tion of the island. The 
photograph reproduced 
on the following page 
shows him ready to start for the interior once 
more. From an ornithological point of view 
the results of the expedition were remarkable. 
The collection numbered nearly five hundred 
specimens representing sixty -eight species, of 
which thirty-nine have proved entirely new to 
science, including three absolutely new genera. 
Many of these I have had to compare with 
forms from the East Coast of Africa. 

Not only is Fernando Po rich in bird life, 
but it is remarkable for its prolific growth of 
orchids, ferns, and mosses, many of which 
have been identified with those on the 
Abyssinian highlands. This supports the theory 



THE WIDE VVOR] l> MAGAZINE. 




. 



, FOR THE INTERIOR. 



[Photo. 



that Fernando Po 
at one time 
to the Came- 
The narrow 
inel that now 
from the 
r is from two 
hundred and eighty 
hundred 
and ninety feet in 
. which sud- 
den', .own 

• 
hundred fatl. 

further 

: i s the 

tion I have 

on 

• il. In the 

of the vil- 
irds, 




in gorgeous breeding plumage — 
some studies in yellow, others in 
scarlet and black — frequent the 
tall palm trees, which are hung 
with their woven nests. Then 
away in the thickets of fish-cane 
the babbling notes of the bulbul 
come at frequent intervals, while 
the kloofs and misty ridges of the 
forest hills are the homes of many 
silent and retiring birds. Where 
the sun is strongest, the beautiful 
metallic hues of the sun-bird as 
it hovers round some tree in 
blossom often catch and please 
the eye. Then towards evening 
the discordant screech of the grey 
parrots grates upon the ear from 
time to time as they journey with 
rapid flight high above the tree- 
tops to some favourite feeding- 
place. 

The bird shown in my last 
illustration is a species of fly- 
catcher, and is one 
of the most re- 
markable of the 
new discoveries. 
Retiring in nature, 
it seeks the sunny 
dells and quiet 
thickets of the 
mountain side. 
And there, with its 
large beady eyes, it 
watches intently 
the passing insects. 
As daylight wears 
away it commences 
to utter a series of 
grating notes, 
enough to set one's 
teeth on edge, one 
bird calling con- 
stantly to another 
long after other 
birds have fallen 
asleep. 



II PLY-CATCHER DISCOVERED BY CAPTAIN ROVD ALEXANDER. 

From a Drawing by H. Gronvold. 



Christmas in a Bear-Jrap. 

By T. C. Boyd, of Plumas County, California. 

A young Californian prospector, on his way over the mountains to spend Christmas with some friends, had 

the misfortune to fall into a bear-trap. All attempts to climb out failed, and only the sagacity of a mongrel 

dog saved him from what would probably have been a lingering death in his curious prison. 




NE December, a good many years 
ago now, a young man named 
Kenneth Morley was prospecting 
near a small stream that emptied 
into the Feather River, Plumas 
County, California. Five miles from his claim 
stood a cosy log-cabin occupied by the Widow 
Nevins and her son Tom, the latter a teamster 
by trade. 

Young Morley found his prospecting a very 
lonely life for a young man — particularly as the 
woik was not dazzlingly remunerative — and on 
Sundays he would go over to the Nevins's cabin 
and stay all day, making himself useful in the 
little household and enjoying the unusual 
luxury of having someone to talk to 
after the enforced solitude of the week. 

He soon became quite a favourite 
with the widow 
and her son. The 
latter, by the way, 
owned an Indian 
dog of doubtful 
pedigree, called 
" Dusty." It was 
a very appropriate 
name, for he was 
the colour of the 
road from always 
following his 
master's team. He 
and Kenneth be- 
came great friends. 

Just at this sea- 
son the hospitable 
Mrs. Nevins was 
planning to get up 
a grand Christmas 
dinner, the sub- 
stantial of which 
were to be game 
and bear's meat, 
the luxuries mince-pie and 
plum-pudding; and to this 
magnificent feast Kenneth, 
much to his gratification, was cordially 
invited. 

Before proceeding any farther I 
should explain that this part of 
Plumas County is about three 
thousand feet above sea-level, with 

Vol. xii.-30. 



a climate much the same as that of the northern 
countries of Europe. On the night before 
Christmas Day there was a fall of snow, but in 
the morning the sun shone brightly out over the 
white covered landscape. The young prospector, 
thankful that he had somewhere to go to, got 
up bright and early in order to make his way to 
the Widow Nevins's hospitable cottage. 

As he looked round at his little claim — 
where, if gold existed, it had hitherto succeeded 
in eluding his search — he mentally thanked his 
lucky stars that he was not doomed to spend 
his Christmas by himself in that desolate spot, 
where every stick and stone was familiar to him 
— and no dearer for being so. Instead of 

going by the 



.^ ''- 



' \ 






4 







HIS FEET SANK THROUGH THE SNOW. 



road as usual, 
Kenneth struck 
out over the hills 
so as to get more 
exercise, for he 
felt in the very 
best humour 
with himself and 
everybody. He 
thought of his 
loving mother, 
far away, and 
wondered what 
she was doing 
just then, and 
whether she was 
thinking of her 
son, the prospec- 
tor — ■ that well- 
loved boy who 
was going home 
to her as soon as 
ever he had 
"struck it rich." 
The air was 
delightfully crisp and brac- 
ing, and Kenneth tramped 
quickly over the powdery 
snow. He had gone about 
two miles when suddenly, 
without the slightest warn- 
ing, his feet sank through 
the snow and he dropped 
heavily for a distance of 
about twenty feet. 






Till: WIDE WORLD MAGAZINK. 



the fall, but not hurt, and 

he ( ould see 

I which filtered down from 

i an old, abandoned 

ich had been lightly 

as a bear-trap ! 

mpletely covered with 

uiall was thoroughly dis 

neth had unsuspectingly walked 

; !v light that reached him 

the small and ragged hole he had 

del I didn't break my neck," the 

he looked around. 

thing now, of course, was to get 

this Kenneth found to be no easy task. 

i laft were quite 

• -ular ; moreover, they 

n hard. After a 

scale them 

up in despair and 

n a pile oi debris to 

sition. He realized 

rly that 1 oner 

unless he had outside aid, and so 

touted lustily, in the faint 

• that someone would hear 

him, although he knew no one 

likely to be within half a mile 

. I only chance, and 

ne, appeared to be 

the possibility that whoever 51 t 

the trap might visit it, but how 

it would be before that 

irred was an uncertainty. 

iid not even know how long 

the trap had been set. 

le pondered over these un- 
ts he ruefully decided 
uld not be able to 
eat th- /.anticipated Christmas dinner, 

pend the time instead at 

torn of this horrible bear-trap. Did ever 

man have such hard luck ? The darker side 

- the possibility of a lingering 

death from starvation if nobody came near or 

he was unable to climb out — the young pro- 

>lutely ignored. Death might come 

in another form, too. If a bear should 

happen to come along and fall into the trap it 

ild undoubted ik vengeance on the 

ner at the bottom, who, at close 

ind unarmed, would stand no ghost of 

ad of dwelling on his awkward plight, 

is mother in Bloomfield, 

t Christmas morning would go to church 

fer for the safety and success of 

en he remembered the Testament 



she had given him, and which he had with him 
in the pocket of his jacket. Taking out the 
little volume he opened it. On the flydeaf was 
written in his mother's familiar hand : — 
" Kenneth Motley, from his Mother. 

" May this book be your guide, and light you 
along the only safe and sure path. For who- 
ever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall 
be saved." 

The tears came in his eyes as he read the 
lines, and he knelt down in that gloomy shaft 
and prayed for deliverance from the strange 
trap into which he had fallen. 

Presently he heard a slight sound above, and 
looking up eagerly he saw a face framed in the 
little ragged patch of daylight where he had 



At 



I mm §m ,L 




NEVER WAS AN ANIMAL MORE WELCOME THAN THAI- 
DISREPUTABLE YELLOW MONGREL." 



fallen through the brushwood. It was the face 
of a dog — Tom Nevins's dog, Dusty. 

Never was an animal more welcome than 
that disreputable yellow mongrel. Kenneth 
appealed to him as though he were a human 
being, begging him to bring assistance, while 
the dog looked at him intelligently with his 



CHRISTMAS IN A BEAR TRAP. 



*35 



bright eyes and wagged his long tail. It was 
one of his many peculiarities that he could not 
bark ; he could only whine " like a coyote," as 
his master said. This he now did by way 
of reply to Kenneth's solicitations, and presently 
ran away. 

Kenneth waited in great suspense. Would 
the dog bring anyone, or would he simply go 
home ? Everything depended upon his sagacity. 

Providentially for the young prospector, a 
trader at a camp called Beckworth had gone to 
the Nevins's cabin that morning and asked Tom 
to take a load of supplies to a mining settle- 
ment near at hand. Tom had refused, as it was 



and looking down discovered his imprisoned 
friend. As quickly as possible Tom got a rope 
from the waggon and brought the prospector to 
the surface. 

When they arrived at the cabin and Mrs. 
Nevins heard of the mishap, she said : " It 
was a miracle that sent Dusty to the rescue. 
That dog shall never want for a good meal as 
long as he lives ! " 

While they were eating the dinner — which 
turned out fully equal to all expectations — Tom 
said he had just heard of a big "strike" at a 
place called Bidwell's Bar. There, he said, the 
climate was mild, and being low down they had 




THE DINNER TURNED OUT FULLY EQUAL TO ALL EXPECTATIONS. 



Christmas Day, but his kind-hearted mother, 
feeling sorry for the " boys," who would 
be short of food, had persuaded him to 
go. Having delivered the goods, Tom was 
returning home, his dog Dusty following as 
usual. Seeing a squirrel, Dusty gave chase 
until he lost him in a hole. While looking 
around for his quarry he discovered Kenneth, 
and then ran after the team, making such 
unusual demonstrations that Tom was finally 
induced to follow him. As he drew near the 
pit the teamster recognised Kenneth's voice — 
for the latter was now shouting again. Moving 
forward slowly, the muffled cries telling him that 
his friend had met with some mishap, his keen 
eyes presently detected the tell-tale hole in the 
snow. Caution now became necessary, but in 
a very short time he was on the edge of the pit, 



no snow. Kenneth said for that reason, if no 
other, he would go down there. 

Accordingly a few days later he left his 
claim, after bidding his kind friends good-bye. 
His luck changed in the new location, and his 
first week's work netted him five hundred dollars. 
This he sent to Mrs. Nevins as a return for her 
many kindnesses, with a request to look after 
his good friend Dusty. In the course of a few 
months he had made no less than ten thousand 
dollars out of his claim, and, being homesick, 
resolved not to wait to increase his wealth 
further. Instead, he went home to Bloomfield 
to his mother and became a prosperous farmer. 
But he never forgot good old Dusty, without 
whose sagacity he would have lost that long- 
anticipated dinner and spent his Christmas in a 
bear-trap. 



'TOUCH AND GO." 



A CHRISTMAS EVE EXPERIENCE IN THE SOUTH SEAS. 

l'kli ! \ VR-YAR, OF I'aNW. \ I \\ ! ll I'.KIDKS, AND SET DOWN 

by John Gacgin, of Melbourne. 

Mr. G t some thirteen years in the islands, and here relates a story which was told him by 

v. who had worked in Queensland and picked up a very fair knowledge of English. " The 

few years ago," writes Mr. Gaggin, " and might just as easily happen to-day." 




had come from Santo during the 



\ 1 ■ were o(\ ( >ba* in the hot 

i. when the trade wind ceases 

ow, and it was near Christmas. 

when you whites make merry. 1 

was in a larg I, and she had 

.1 - two hundred, perhaps 

■ik on the plantations. We had a 

ai ami agent, ami nearly every night 

But we wire short eil" yams, for we 

iny, and the whites talked of feeding us 

i the boys were m bad spirits, even 

although it time, tor yams are the 

•i us out of the earth. The s< a 

: our vessel simply 

tin the vasl -well of the wide ocean, and 

there was no wind at all. We lay, just after 

inrise, some three miles off the " 1 lemon 

at Walu-riki, where the spirit- 

the Oba m :ter death 

ie captain then stood forward on 

1 of the poop and ordered the port 

wered, but the white sailors 

murmured and said it was Christmas Eve, 

and like Sundav. Then the Government 

•' Men," he said. " I want a 

id of yams and a pig to give our 

_ive them rice on 

m - i That silenced the grum 

ind the boat was lowered and the 

ded and put in the stern. 

the ship's head round to sea 

pulled for the land. Do you know 

•he I - We went into that little 

•roe bay just below the " 1 )emon Rock."' 

making, and we pulled to the 

tween the 

thick scrub and the sea and shoved the 

•f our boat on tl h. There 

on the sand, perhaps 

• - (f, and the mate stood 

rn and <alled them, but they 

te was not a white, 

hink, and I did not care for him. He 

hard on us boat-i ■ ie habit of 

ood is mixed. He- . 

hand in tfv d not know 

A talk. Then the mate turned 

was in the bows reading, 

-iland in 



and said, '"1 don't understand these people; will 
you try ? Tis you who want the food." I don't 
think these two seemed very good-minded 
towards each other. Then the white put away 
his paper and strode aft from thwart to thwart. 
He was big and tall and strong, taller even than 
I am, and perhaps stronger, for you whites, 
although not so big as we are, seem stronger 
somehow. He had big grey eyes, and when 
he was angered they took fire and seemed to 
hum. How is it that we South Sea folk cannot 
look into the eyes of you whites? They all 
seem to flash like fire, and we cannot look you 
face to face. 

This big white stood up in the stern sheets 
and said, " So you want me to trade, do you ? 
Very well, I'll trade this trip.' You go and sit 




AT FIRST ONLY THE TALI.EK ONE WOULD COME CLOSE OP, 



"TOUCH AND GO." 



237 



down ; I'll manage alone." And he unslung 
his VVinchester off his big shoulders, and 
dragged his heavy revolver to his hand, for no 
one would think of trading at Oba without 
weapons. The mate said " All right," and went 
forward. Then the white called out in the 
island talk, and the girls looked up surprised, 
and laughed and came towards us, bringing 
their baskets of yams. But at first only the 
taller one would come close up. By Yasher !* 
she was a beauty, tall and slender as a young 
palm, her smooth skin the colour of the cedar 
you bring from the land of the whites, and she 
had courage, mind you. The other two were 
frightened, but she stepped up like a chieftainess 
and offered her yams with a smile and a jest. 
She was of chiefly blood, too, as her fringed waist- 
mat showed. Our big white laughed and jested 
also, and slapped her cheek lightly and patted 
her face. He refused to buy from the others, so 
she had to brin^ the 
yams and sell to him. 
Then he gave her a 
present, and stooped 
low and whispered 
in her little ear. I 
heard him — he called 
her "Pretty one," and 
kissed her. Not that 
nasty white kiss with 
the lips which re- 
minds one of canni- 
balism, but the South 
Sea " smelling kiss " 
we use, and the girl 
coloured under the 
brown skin, and he 
whispered her to 
bring down all the 
women to trade with 
yams, and she went 
with a nod and a 
smile ; but she first 
kissed him, too, in 
return. 

The village was 
only some two hun- 
dred yards off on a 
little knoll; and 
soon troops of 
women and children 
came down, bringing 
yams, and kawais, 
and taro, and even 




I KNEW HE WAS THE CIIIK 



Pl£ 



The white 



was an old tradtr, I saw at a glance, and 
tobacco, blue and red paint, pipes, and turkey- 
red changed hands quickly, and the boat was 

* A sacred volcano in the Island of Tanna. 



shortly filled and went off to the vessel, where 
it was unloaded, and came back again in little 
or no time, and trading began again. Not as 
before, though, for the white was reading again 
in the bows and the mate trading astern. 

As I sat leaning over my shipped oar I saw 
a little lad going to the bows in a canoe and 
whispering to the big white. My ears are as 
sharp as the flying fox's, and I heard every 
word. " The young girl there," he said, " wants 
you to take her as your wife, white chief, if you 
are unmarried. She sent me to speak to you." 

I glanced round astern. There on the sand 
stood the young beauty who had spoken to us 
at first, with her soul in her eyes. How she 
watched him ! He glanced up and gave her a 
look. A light flashed over his face ; I saw he 
was tempted, and who could blame him? For 
a moment he eyed her, then he shock his head 
slightly. "Tell her to wait," he said; "I can't 

this trip, but I'll 
come back again." 
The beauty waited 
for no reply ; the 
shake of the head 
told her everything. 
How her eyes blazed ! 
How her white teeth 
snapped ! The next 
moment she had 
bounded into the 
thick scrub with a 
cry. 

Presently all the 
women drew back 
and refused to trade 
further. They cared 
not for the grudging 
trading of the half- 
caste, so to satisfy 
them the big white 
came back again. I 
noticed he often stole 
a glance at the part 
of the scrub into 
which the slighted 
beauty bad vanished. 
Was he sorry, I 
wonder ? 

Well, the boat 
filled, and went and 
came two or three 
times after this. To- 
wards the dinner- 
hour men gradually 
began to trade, and the women to <;o back. Sud- 
denly the chief stood among us, a head over the 
rest, and all his great body down to his waist-mat 
was blackened. I knew he was the chief by the 






nil \\ 1 1>1'. WOKI D MAGAZINE. 



frim ' ' ■•' mats 

il and .is fine .>- your cloth. Did 

them an 
did, for the order came at once, 
" Pull out quickly now." and in a second the 
it half full, shot out. When a 
:' tin- parleying began. 
" yelled the chief. " Where are 
1 are not full up yet." 
to trade with women, not fight with 
.1 back the agent. 
1 1 : we don't want to fight : the women 
have gone for more yams." was the answer : 

and as the chief shouted this the men went 
k and the children crowded to the beach 
n. 

The white hesitated, and just then that foolish 

mat- d. " You seem afraid ! See, the 

women are returning." Grim was the look the 

whi; . him, but he answered nothing, then 

ked in the boat again, and trading 

m as before. For some twenty minutes, 

it went on, and we were filled. 

v the chief gave a yell, and every 

lan and child darted off the narrow beach 

in a second. We heard a rush through the 

lb, and in 1 
time than I take to 
tell it the circular 
little bay beach was 
. with two hun- 
dred men, all in their 
. with 
muskets. poisoned 
arrows, and clubs, 
and with their bodies 
kened for war. 
We were so taken 
trprise we had 
no time to move an 
oar. A great brute 
laughing and 
_ 1 not 
: us. 

but nt made 

m. We 

r 

but had to put 

them down too. If 

one • 

orders, one is a: 
head bi 
in white men 

" I can d 

shooting,'' the white 

red His rifle 

hand. I 

stole a look at the 




"AS IN THE WATER Tp HER WAIST NEARLY. 



half-breed — he had not moved, but his face was 
green -with fear. The Fijian pulling the oar 
next me was shivering, but the white's eyes 
were ablaze, and he and the big chief eyed 
each other, not ten yards apart. I found myself 
thinking who would go under first, the chief or 
1 he white, and I swore to myself to do for that 
big brute ramming home his powder just in 
front of me. Coolly the chief gave his orders, 
and the scores of men pressed ever closer. We 
1 ned doomed, the whole lot of us. " Is the 
agent ever going to shoot that beast of a chief?" 
I thought. I heard the click of the Winchester 
as he cocked it. Now for it ! Suddenly he 
lowered the hammer with a half-laugh to him- 
self. " What is thtre to laugh at ? " I thought, 
when I expected to join my fathers at Vasher 
within five minutes. The white stooped to the 
trade-box and picked out a big Jew's-harp, all 
shining like gold. 

" Here is a present for the chief's daughter," 
he said, quietly. 

I looked up to see a winsome little lassie 
standing by the chief. The Obas are a hand- 
some race, men and women alike ; Fll say that 
for them. The chiefs daughter was holding his 

hand and had evi- 
dently just come. 
" Pass it along," was 
the cry. "Oh, no ; 
let the girl come her- 
self," spoke the white. 
The little thing — she 
was about eleven, 
perhaps— looked up 
to her father for per- 
mission ; he nodded, 
and she stepped 
daintily down among 
the warriors for her 
present. Our boat 
was just afloat, and 
she was in the water 
to her waist nearly. 
Here was this 
wretched white, in- 
stead of shooting the 
chief, making a pre- 
sent to a child ! 

But I noticed 
now how low he 
was stooping. Sud- 
denly the great arms 
were round her, and 
in an instant, with a 
swing, she was in the 
boat and placed right 
aft in front of the 
white and facing the 



"TOUCH AND GO. 



239 



crowd. " Pull your hardest ! " he bellowed, and 
the stout ash oars bent and strained as we pulled 
our very best. 

A hundred guns were levelled, but the white 
laughed out, " Fire away, Obas, and shoot your 
chief's daughter ! " — and not a gun went off. I 
thought the little girl would scream ; but not a 
bit of it. She clapped her little hands and 
thought it a great joke. The yelling and 
howling from the beach were deafening. The 
chief foamed with rage and dashed himself on 
the sand, rolling and moaning but in his pain, 
" The apple of my eye is gone ! " Then 
there was a rush to the big war-canoe hauled 
up on the beach. 

The agent jumped on the after-thwart 
beside me, still holding the little one in his 
arms. " Drop that canoe, you Oba fools ! " 
he shouted. " Before she touches the water 
I can be at the vessel. Chief, send a little 
boy out in that small canoe, and I'll give 
you back the 'light of your eyes.' " 

'Twas odd how they obeyed him. We 
lay still about two hundred yards off, and 
in five minutes the little canoe was along- 
side. The boy came on, laughing. "Oh ! 
what fools you have made of us all ! " he 
said. "The chief will never get over the 
chaffing of your getting his pet like that." 

Then the white put the little girl out of 
his arms into the canoe, and gave her fifty 
or sixty sticks of tobacco and a dozen Jew's- 
harps, and kissed and fondled her, and the 
little lassie did the same to him. " By 
Jove ! little one, you saved all our lives," he 
said, and I think he was right. As the boy 
took his paddle the agent said to him, "Tell 
your chief that when whites want to fight 
they fight, and when they don't want to 
an Oba chief can't make them. Let the 
chief thank his gods he is to-day dealing 
with whites and chiefs." 

The canoe shot off, not direct towards the 
shore, but at right angles, and she had barely 
gone twenty yards when every gun on the 
beach was fired at us and the bullets rained 
round us. None hit us, however, for the 
Oba men are poor shots and we were some 
distance off. We seized our weapons and 
replied, but the beach was by this time deserted, 
and the Oba men under cover in the thick 
scrub. 

The agent did not fire ; he was laughing — 
laughing, and the bullets splashing in the water 
all round us ! " What are you firing at, Lyas ? " 
he said ; " the trees ? " So I stopped. 

" I'll fire at something besides trees," snarled 
the Fijian next me, and he swung half round 



and levelled at a cluster of girls who came out 
of the scrub at the end of the bay to meet the 
canoe. But the white threw up the muzzle of 
the gun and yelled fiercely at him until the boy 
cowered down. I thought the agent would 
have hit the lad, but he did not. The next 
moment he seized his Winchester. Right in 
the clear space in front of the empty village 
walked out in full view a great pig. " Sights at 
four hundred and all fire at the big boar ! " 
sang out the white, and at the first fire over 
toppled the great brute, stone-dead, and a 
wailing yell went up from the forest when the 
Obas saw their pet pig rolled over. 




"THE WHITE PUT THE LITTLE G1KL INTO THE CANOE. 

After this we pulled off to the vessel ; no 
more trading for us there. Next day the sea 
was still calm, and it was Christmas Day, and 
we had a great feast and dancing. The whites 
sang and danced, some over crossed knives, 
and we had great fun. The Oba people ashore 
envied us, I know. But, by the shades of my 
fathers, we all escaped by the skin of our teeth 
that time ! My tale is ended, white man, and 
'tis true as I have told it. 



ADRIFT ON A LOG. 



By Walter J. Mowbray. 

A terrible experience in the lonely Abercrombie ranges of New South Wales. The author endea- 
jred to cross a flooded torrent on a log which was wedged across it, with the result that he 
and the log went adrift. Then followed a veritable race with Death. 




WAS halt way across the mountains 

n the rain began to descend. 

All through the day the sky had 

overcast, while now and again 

the ominous mutter and rattle ol 

tant thunder warned me of what was to 

follow. There was an oppressive stillness, too, 

in the air. as though Nature 

paused to summon all her , 

the approaching 
the short after- 
It | ened into night 
rm, so long dela 
I suddenly out of 
the darkening heavens. The 

illness gave pi 

to a deep roar, as the wind 

madly through the 

gn.v rted bran< 

of the blue gum and box 

and raced along the 

id then the 

rain came ping by in 

. -heets that 

wash- mountain slopes 

the rain 
Jitly in far 
■ 

id dark lay the 
untain-chain of the 
rcrombies, while betw< 

rid tumult of the thunder and the 

' •' wil • ■ ould be heard the 

. murmur of a thousand cascades 

the steep slopes to swell the 

torrents that were fast gathering 

was rugged and narrow, and, 

1 anxiously through the darkness, 

-n no shelter from the storm, 




1 HE AUTHOR, MR. w 
From a /'/into, by //'. E. 



either for myself or my terrified horse. The 

.poor beast was trembling violently in every 

limb, and as each rapidly recurring flash of 

vivid light blazed before his eyes he screamed 

and swerved and pawed the air in added terror. 

At length L espied a ruined and deserted hut 

by the side of the track, and after a little 

persuasion induced the terri- 

— 1 tied animal to enter the low 

doorway and stand in the 
comparative shelter within. 
The drops that percolated 
persistently through the roof 
troubled us but little, for we 
were drenched already. 
Soothing the frightened crea- 
ture with a few encouraging 
words, I stepped back to the 
doorway of the hut and looked 
out at the raging storm. 

It was a truly magnificent, 
yet terrible, sight. Dense, 
impenetrable blackness, 
pierced through and through 
by rapid flashes of dazzling 
light that seemed to sear and 
scorch one's eyes, lay over 
the rugged ranges that 
stretched away on every hand. 
The thunder cracked and 
bellowed overhead, the wind 
shrieked on :.he lonely mountain-tops and hum- 
med in the hollows and ravines below. Sturdy 
trees strained and groaned and snapped, and 
went hurtling down the steep rain-swept slopes 
till they plunged at last into the foaming torrents 
in the valleys. And still those numberless mur- 
muring cascades ran down from rock to rock to 
swell the roaring flood, whose deep, sonorous 
voice came up to me from the blackness far below. 



ALTER J. MOWBRAY. 
// 'right, Wa/t/ia>rstim 



ADRIFT ON A LOG. 



241 



The track i was traversing wouid lead me 
sometimes through these lonely valleys, ana I 
couid not repress an exclamation of annoyance 
as i foresaw the added difficulties and dangers 
which I should now have to encounter. There 
was no other track from Crookwell — the small 
New South Wales township from which I had 
come — to Trunkey Creek, and my business was 
both urgent and important. But in such a storm 
it was impossible to proceed until the morning, 
so, with a philosophic forgetfulness of the dis- 
comforts of the road, I made myself as comfort- 
able as the leakiness of the hut-roof and my 
wet clothes would permit, and after a frugal 
supper — shared with my still nervous horse — I 
wrapped myself up in a damp rug and slept 
fitfully until the morning. 

Before day broke the storm had passed away, 
but it was still raining heavily. It had been an 
unusually wet season, and the valleys were full 
of hurrying streams. The sky was leaden and 
grey, and the reveille of the usually jubilant 
jackass had in it more of despondency than of 
merriment. 

The prospect outside the hut was a dreary 
one. Storm-draggled trees, with broken branches 
and limp 
leaves, huddled 
together on the 
rain -sodden 
hills. Cascades, 
streams, rivu- 
lets, rapids, 
and great deep 
mountain tor- 
rents had been 
born in a 
single night. 
Down in the 
valleys and on 
the mountain 
slopes fences 
and dam-banks 
had been swept 
away, while on 
the foaming 
surface of the 
racing floods 
were to be seen 
the carcasses of 
dead sheep, 
the dismem- 
bered logs of 
mountain huts, 
and floating 
stacKS of sod- 
den hay that 
told only too 
plainly of de- 

Vol. xii. — 31. 




1 CANTEREU OVER THE RUGGED MOUNTAIN TRACK 



vastation and destruction higher up the storm- 
washed ridges. 

But it was now light, and for the present, at 
least, there was no further reason for delay. 
Mounting my horse, therefore, I cantered over 
the rugged mountain track, fording the many 
streams which now intersected it and which 
foamed and swirled above my horse's girths, till 
we were within seven miles of our destination. 
Here we encountered an obstacle more formid- 
able than any we had hitherto surmounted. 
For some distance I had been aware that we 
were approaching a mountain torrent of unusual 
size. A deep roar, which increased as we pro- 
ceeded, sounded in my ears, and as I drew rein 
on the brink of a great rushing flood of seething 
waters and looked hopelessly across to the 
opposite shore the senses of sight and hearing 
grew dizzy and confused with the swirl and roar 
of the raging torrent. It was about fifty feet 
broad, but, owing to the steep declivity of the 
mountain sides, the water, as I could see at a 
glance, was far too deep to ford. 

To attempt to swim in such a torrent would 
have been sheer madness, for neither man nor 
horse could live in that angry flood. The entire 

surface was 
white with 
foam that his- 
sed and bub- 
bled as it went 
swirling by. 
The very fish, 
borne help- 
lessly down 
from some 
swollen stream 
far up the 
ranges, had 
been stunned 
and killed, and 
floated past 
limp and life- 
less. A little 
to the left was a 
ruined bridge, 
half torn away 
by the swollen 
torrent, whose 
waters dashed 
with a roar 
through the 
dismantled 
beams be- 
neath. For 
little more than 
twenty feet the 
bridge jutted 
out over the 






nil. WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 



then t rs and twisted 

how the flood had swept the 

n now straining 

action. Even now 

id the gaunt timbers 

it their splintered arms appealingl) 

imp that still remained em 

hank. 

mounting itiously traversed the bridge 

■ i beams, and looked fearfully 

: tb waters beneath. Thirty 

me from the opposite shore, 

shook violently under my feet. 

I has and returned to my patient 

I . n, in sheer dismay, 1 looked about 

me waj I the difficulty. 

to where I stood, and on the very brink 
of t a belt of sturdy blue gums. 

a moment I hesitated, since the suggestion 
: inspired would, if carried into 
abandon my horse. But my 
iiitted o( no delay, and, though not 
>ut reluctance. I decid idopt the idea 

that had come to me as the only possible way 
. fficulty. 
rtunately my equipment, which was strapped 
e's back, contained that always indis- 
ible article in densely-wooded regions — a 
Selecting the tallest and 
>f the trees at the water's edge, I 
into position and brought the sharp axe- 
blade down on the great trunk with long, swinging 
I iie white chips flew fast around me, 
and and deepened in the shivering 

ilculating the natural tendency 
of the tree to fall where there was least resistance, 
I its descent that, when at last it 

•nd snapped, its leafy crest swung out- 
tmine torrent, and, with a final 
the trunk splintered and Split beneath 
t, it crashed down over the 
m tied with its topmost 
boughs the ite bank. It was not quite 

r, for the crest had fallen some 
her up the valley than 
of the torrent, the great 
in down into the foaming flood. 

■n better than I had 

eipa* in the absence of ropes when 

with uide a falling tree, it is 

impo its descent with any 

5. Still, the slight slant of 

meant greater insecurity, and I 

led with breathles as the waters 

flood against the strain- 

md. hissing ana foaming as they went, 

. ana away down the valley to 

nes beyond. One by one the 

ches which had not been broken ofi" when 



the tree fell snapped and went swirling down on 
the crest of the loam. 

Presently there was a louder report, and the 
trunk itself broke and parted near the top. 
Leaving the leafy crest of the tree behind it, 
the free end of the great log splashed into the 
water and shot down the stream for three or four 
feet. Then, before it could lift, it was caught 
and held by some projecting rock or boulder on 
the opposite bank, so that, except where the 
lower and thicker end of the trunk ran down 
into the racing torrent on my side, it was 
scarcely visible beneath the white glistening 
foam which swept over it. One-third of the 
journey across would therefore be comparatively 
easy, but the remaining two-thirds, with the log 
literally under water, would- be hazardous in the 
extreme. 

I waited to see if the log would change its 
position again ; but it now appeared to be 
tightly wedged between the steep sides of the 
valley, though it still strained and heaved as the 
surging flood dashed against and over it in a 
futile attempt to wrencb it from its lodgment 
and sweep it away. Each moment I expected 
to see the upper end of the great trunk lifted 
by its own buoyancy to the surface, but it re- 
mained firm. For nearly an hour I waited, but 
there came no abatement either in the falling 
rain or the racing torrent. Then, my horse 
having by this time finished grazing on the none 
too fertile slopes of the rocky ranges, I tethered 
him to a neighbouring tree with a long thong 
of raw hide, slipped a card bearing my name 
beneath the saddle, and braced myself for the 
dangerous journey across. 

For the first fifteen or twenty feet I was able 
to maintain an upright position on the great 
log, carefully choosing my steps to prevent the 
slightest slip. But as I neared the deeper part 
of the surging stream and the trunk dipped 
down beneath the surface I was forced to pro- 
ceed on my hands and knees. I found, too, 
that my added weight pressed the bending 
trunk still deeper into the foaming torrent, till, 
by the time I had reached the middle of the 
stream, the log was so far under water that I 
was compelled to cling on with the strength of 
desperation to prevent myself from being hurled 
into the raging rapids as they swept by me with 
a roar that was well-nigh deafening. 

My limbs grew numbed and cold, and f 
caught my breath in long, laboured inhalations 
before each successive movement on the great 
quivering iog, for as I stirred the frail bridge 
unon which 1 crouched strained and shook with 
aiarming violence, increasing my perii a 
thousand-fold. I have often thought since what 
a curious appearance I must have presented at 



ADRIFT ON A LOG. 



243 




UAs ALlLli TO MAINTAIN AN IM'KIGHT POSITION. 



this moment — apparently crossing a foaming 
mountain torrent, devoid of all support, upon 
my hands and knees, since the trunk was now 
deep in the surging white foam that hissed and 
hubbled about me. The torrent here could not 
have been less than fifteen to twenty feet deep, 
yet from my appearance it might have been 
scarcely as many inches. 

I had accomplished about two-thirds of the 
distance when I found that the log was now so 
far under water that it was impossible in my 
present position, owing to the terrible force of 
the racing flood, to prevent myself from being 
swept off my submerged support. Strain and 
grip and clutch as I might, the current was too 
strong for me, and I was rapidly becoming 
exhausted. With a sudden resolve I let my 
numbed and aching limbs slip down on either 



side of the trembling 
log, intending to sit 
astride it, and so slowly 
and painfully work my 
way across to the oppo- 
site bank. This position, 
too, would bring my sup- 
port higher out of the 
water and considerably 
lessen the force of the 
torrent in its attempts 
to hurl me to a miser- 
able death. 

As I shifted, however, 
the trembling trunk, 
temporarily relieved of 
more than half my 
weight, vibrated and 
shook with renewed 
violence. With a quick 
gasp of terror I clutched 
wildly at the sodden 
bark till, after a brief 
but desperate struggle, 
I succeeded in steady- 
ing myself on the rock- 
ing log. But, even as I 
did so, to my dismay 
the top of the long trunk 
released itself from its 
hidden entanglements 
on the opposite slope, 
and, springing upwards 
with a sudden bound, 
cut the white foam above 
it and showed above the 
surface of the torrent. 
The end did not now 
reach the bank, and 
therefore began instantly 
to swing round with the 
racing flooa. As it came immediately opposite 
the severed stump on the bank I had quitted, it 
again grated on the rocky slope of the mountain. 
But the impetus it had now gained was far too 
strong to be thus lightly checked. Another 
couple of feet snapped suddenly off, and the 
great log swung still farther round, gaining in 
force and velocity each instant as it answered 
ponderously to the bounding torrent that surged 
resistlessly around it. 

Glancing momentarily backward, I saw that 
the lower and thicker end of the great trunk 
was still held fast to the severed stump by a few- 
ragged fibres of white wood. In all probability, 
therefore, the floating tree would swing round 
until it touched the bank I had started from, 
where it would be held fast by the still un- 
severed splinters which held it to the stump, 






IHi: WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 



and nt exertions would count for 

; up the leg nearest to 

iv rapidly approaching 

sustain a fracture— I 

ning impact to enable me to 

ack on to the slope where I had lefl 

ssibility— I might 

rtainty. All at once, to my 

thai the swinging log 

the filnes which still 

■Id it imp. One by one the white 

sted and snapped, and before the 

mplished more than half the 

the shore the thick end rolled from 

stump and slipped into the surging waters 

the torrent and I was adrift, helpless and 

, in a sei thing river of white foam, racing 

ng I struction down a wild mountain- 

ie. 

II . and hopelessly I looked from cliff 

liff in a fruitlei rch for the means of 

pe. All who have seen the mad 

and heard the dull, deafening roar 

wollen mountain torrent will know how 

\ my dang( r. Indeed, I can give 

no adequate description of the terrible picture, 

tl) majestic that, even in those 

moments of direst peril, the wondrous grandeur 

- red within me a thrill of 

that all the terrors of my position 

could not quell. 

N idling breathing could have lived for five 

short minutes in those seething white wati rs. 

_ down their steep mountain-bed, 

reat jagged rocks and deep transverse 

es that made the foaming torrent pause, and 

and eddy, and swirl, lashed into fury by 

behind and below 1 ; they carried 

diem, and made one wonder 

at the havoc and tation which the mere 

in upon the mountains could 

their foundations under 

mir.- rashed into the foam 

•■nt swirling on to final and 

till m Hugi boulders 

n thc-ir sturdy s< ttings, 
11 with a i plash into 

in a kind of apathy, I 
perils in the terrible 
nning. mere 

entanglement with a torn-up tr- 
into the flood, where the breath 
aten out of my helpless body 
ind - • is undercurrents would suck 

••■vn. 

>m time to time the steep ravines through 
■ heights still m 



precipitous, and I was many times compelled 
to crouch down upon the flying log to prevent 
projecting or overhanging crags from sweeping 
me off. Sometimes, too, the great log struck 
the mountain -sides as it dashed impetuously 
round a curve in the ravine, and the sickening 
shock of the sudden impact well-nigh hurled 
me from my seat. But even these momentary 
and violent returns to land were of no avail, 
since the towering walls of the mountains 
wne now far too precipitous to afford me foot- 
hold even for a single instant, and my position 
on the log was every moment becoming more 
perilous and insecure. 

When I had started on that wild race down 
the mountain torrent there had been but five 
branches remaining on the shattered tree. 
Three of these had now been torn away, and 
but two remained to steady my unwieldy craft. 
The significance of this will be at once realized 
when it is remembered that a log completely 
stripped of branches rolls in its own displace- 
ment, and in water such as this would revolve 
with such rapidity that no one could remain 
seated upon it for ten consecutive seconds. 

Presently I became aware of another sound, 
deeper and more sonorous than the roar of the 
racing torrent. With a sudden dread I peered 
anxiously ahead as I shot round each successive 
curve in the narrow ravines ; but for some 
minutes nothing was to be seen, though the 
sound increased in volume as I proceeded. At 
last, when I had grown almost sick with appre- 
hension and alarm, the scene I so much dreaded 
burst upon my view. The valley through which 
I was being whirled had been narrowing percep- 
tibly for some time, and, suddenly shooting 
round a sharp curve in the mountain-side, I 
saw to my horror that it ended less than a 
hundred yards ahead and apparently dropped 
sheer down into another and transverse valley 
broader than that in which 1 now was and some 
fifty feet below. 

I could see as I sat astride my racing log the 
smooth, arched curve on the brink of the fatal 
fall, where the water dashed down to the gulf 
below. With a sudden fear I thought of those 
two branches which stood between me and the 
flood and hope went from me. Clutching the 
log with desperate, frenzied fingers, I set my 
teeth and waited. A moment and I was on the 
very brink of that terrible fall. I had one 
glimpse of the shining sheet of falling water 
gleaming through a mist of hissing spray, and 
then the log leaped far out over the falls and 
went hurling down to the foaming river beneath. 

Never shall I forget that terrible plunge, with 
the roar of tne cataract ringing in my ears and 
the nails of my numbed fingers cutting into the 






ADRIFT ON A LOG. 



245 




THE LOG WENT HURLING DOWN TO THE FOAMING RIVER BENEATH. 



bark of the great log with the frenzy of despair. 
The roar died suddenly to a murmur as the 
chill water closed above my head, and I went 
down, down, still desperately clutching the 
great log with hands and knees, almost to the 
bed of the dark river below. Slowly, very 
slowly, the impetus ceased, and the log, answer- 
ing to its own buoyancy, rose again to the 
surface. But my breath was well-nigh spent 
when the waters parted above my head and I 
was able to gulp in the precious air of Heaven. 
With a sigh of unutterable relief I saw that I 



had escaped the 
whirlpool at the foot 
of the falls, and was 
now riding less 
rapidly down a 
broader and shal- 
lower valley. But 
another branch had 
jeen snapped off my 
tree in that terrible 
descent, and 
now but one 
remained to 
steady the great 
log. 

The river 
into which I 
had dropped 
still ran far too 
swiftly to allow 
of my swim- 
ming to land, 
though but for 
this the task 
would not have 
been difficult to 
accomplish, for 
here and there 
the low moun- 
tains sloped 
more gently 
down to the 
margin of the 
stream. But he 
who has learned 
the mysteries of 
the mountains 
knows only too 
well that be- 
neath these 
swiftly-speeding 
torrents lurk 
many a trea- 
cherous eddy 
and undercur- 
rent that would 
engulf the 
its cruel embrace, per- 



strongest swimmer in 
chance to rise no more. 

As soon as I could sufficiently collect my 
scattered senses, however, I set to work to dis- 
cover some way of escape. I could not long go 
on like this, for at any moment my one remain- 
ing branch might break, and the log, stripped of 
all encumbrance, would then roll helplessly over 
and over and fling me into the water. Suddenly 
I saw, floating alongside, the thick, gnarled 
branch which had last been wrenched from 
the great log. With a sudden inspiration I 






iiii: win: worlp maca/.im.. 



I out and clutched it. Perhaps I might 
er my unwieldy craft sufficiently 

nablc me to land. The task 
sible, hut it was worth the 

•l in that moment oi danger the remem 
nnected itself with the 




1 USED MY BRANCH AS A BACK-WATER. 



decision I now had to make as to which bank I 
aid attemp'. I oming to the con- 

clusion that the one to the right must be the 
nearer to Trunkey Creek, I leaned far out over 
the swirling waters and used my branch as a 
-:r. It was terribly hard work, and I 
more than once in imminent peril of being 
torn from my seat. Twice, too, the end of the 
1 off, and once I almost lost it 
-ether. But slowly, very slowly, the great 
my improvised "helm" and 
moved heavily towards the shore. 

"■'muse I isted in my frantic 

effor ach the bank, and at last a thrill of 



unspeakable relief ran through me as, nearing 
the side, my feet grated on the hard ground 
beneath, and with a sudden cry of joy I leaped 
from the log and sprang up. the slope of the hill. 
For a hundred yards or more I never stopped, 
tearing up the mountain-side in the intensity of 
relief and the reaction from peril to safety. Then, 

hatless as I was, and 
with the water still drip- 
ping from my drenched 
clothes, I dropped rever- 
ently upon my knees in 
those desolate mountain 
solitudes, and, remember- 
ing to whom I owed my 
rescue from death, 
breathed a fervent thanks- 
giving for my escape. 

Wearily and painfully 
I made my way to Trun- 
key Creek, encountering 
on the way no more for- 
midable obstacles than 
numberless rapid but ford- 
able mountain streams 
and an occasional gully 
or gap, which I was suc- 
cessfully able to leap. But 
that terrible race down 
the flooded torrent had 
lengthened the journey 
from seven to well-nigh 
twenty miles, and when at 
length I reached my des- 
tination I was in the last 
stages of weariness and 
exhaustion. I was, how- 
ever, able to transact the 
business which had 
brought me there, and a 
few days' rest in the peace- 
ful little mountain town- 
ship sufficed to renew my 
strength. I found, too, to 
my unbounded delight, that my good little bush 
horse, becoming impatient at my prolonged 
absence, had snapped the law-hide thong with 
which I had tethered him and galloped back 
over the mountain track to a place called Tuena, 
where he was caught and stabled until inquiries 
could be instituted as to my whereabouts. 

So all ended well— far better, indeed, than I 
had ever anticipated. But, to the last day of my 
life, I shall never forget that terrible dash down 
the swollen mountain torrent, with the white 
foam surging and hissing around me, with the 
din and roar of many waters ringing in my ears, 
and the fear of death before my eyes. 





Jo fyn.&Papfiae/ 



£*■ 



THE CHATEAU D ANET, NEAR WHICH 

THE CAVE-DWELLERS' VILLAGE IS 

SITUATED. 

From a Photo. 



-i HiriiMi 



Within a two hours' railway ride 
of Paris there exists an extra- 
ordinary community of cave- 
dwellers, with the manners and 
customs of the Stone Age. The author visited this remarkable Troglodyte settlement on behalf of 
"The Wide World Magazine," and illustrates his description with specially-taken photographs. It 
is difficult to conceive that such a place as this Troglodyte village can exist in a civilized country 

in the twentieth century. 




ITHIN a few miles of the historic 
plain of Ivry, where, in the battle of 
which Macaulay sang, King Henry 
of Navarre broke up the armies of 
the League in 1590, and within a 
stone's throw of the fine old Chateau d'Anet, is 
a village of the Age of Stone. 

I came upon it unexpectedly one sunny 
Sunday morning. A vine-grower of the neigh- 
bourhood had taken me out for a walk to see 
the beauties of the country, when my foot 
slipped and I began running downhill con- 
siderably quicker than was either necessary or 
comfortable. 

" Be careful," cried my friend, " or you will 
commit burglary." A friendly tree arrested my 
precipitous descent, and when I had recovered 
my breath again I asked him what he meant.- 

" We are within a few yards of the Troglodyte 
village," said my friend, " and if you entered 
one of their dwelling-places through the window 
or the chimney — they amount to the same thing 
— I do not think they would be pleased to see 
you or would receive you hospitably." 
" Troglodytes ? " said I. 
' Yes, Troglodytes, or cave-dwellers if you 
prefer the term. These hills are honeycombed 



with caverns, and under our feet there is a 
village of some sixty people, men, women, and 
children, who have no other dwelling! " 

We made our way carefully over an over- 
hanging bit of grass-grown cliff, which formed 
a sort of natural roof, and got on to a level bit 
of road. In the hillside facing us were several 
gaping holes and a rough door or two. " This 
is the village," said my friend, "and if you 
listen you will hear the amiable inhabitants." 

There was a curious noise as of cats quarrelling, 
which seemed to come out of the very bowels 
of the earth, and just as I was wondering what 
it was, " Look ! There is Pere Roclaux," my 
friend exclaimed. 

"And who is Pere Roclaux? " I asked. 

"The King of the Cave-dwellers," replied the 
vine-grower. He came down the stretch of 
level road towards us — an old man, above middle 
height, with the broadest back and shoulders 
that I have ever seen on any human being, 
except Eugen Sandow. He had long, loosely 
swinging arms, powerful bandy legs, and a 
springy step which belied the yellowish white 
in his hair and beard. He was dressed in his 
Sunday garb, a much-patched shirt and trousers 
of blue cotton stuff, wore a flat cap upon his 






nil. WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE 







i 0GLODY1 E VILLAGE. 



. I, and on his feet a ragged pair of stockings. 

His hair and beard were thickly matted, and 

there was little of his face to be seen except a 

: of flashing dark brown eyes. What skin 

- tanned a dark mahogany by the 

-un and by exposure. 

As he came towards us the hillside 

lile, and while I was still 

_ whether the forms I saw upon 

re human beings or apes the tribe 

i - lytes had clustered round us. 

mutt nenaces and in the same 

-_ . for sous and cigarettes. 

difficult to believe that we were 

i little more than two hours by a fast 

• from . ave-dwellers 

• were more like half- clotl 

- nes of the Stone Ag< 
thai. tury human beings. 

' Wh u want with us ? 

laux, in a patois which 
I founc ill to understand. Then 

-it of my l, and 

to smash it. " V 
our own lives and we wont be 
of, as if v : wild 

■ he growled. " Get out with 

J 

the old man knew my " 
-. and this acquaintance and a 

timely distribution of cigarettes and 
did much to ensure something 

of a welcome, and we began to talk. Fro 



Pere Roclaux, although he 
looks much younger, is, he told 
us, eighty-three years old, and 
ie has lived in one or other of 
the caves on the hill 
of Ezy for over fifty 
years. He soon 
cleared a circle 
round us by grip- 
ping as many naked 
arms and legs in 
either hand as he 
could clasp and 
throwing his turbu- 
lent tribesmen from 
us, and then with 
some use of the 
knotted staff and a 
growled warning in 
patois secured us a 
few moments' 
peace. 

On our assurance 
that we meant no 
harm and wanted a 
few photographs, 
owing to our admiration of the picturesqueness 
of the place, the old man became more amiable, 
and even posed before the camera at his garden 
gate, as shown in the photograph. He "dressed" 
for this performance, by the summary procedure 



{Photo. 




THE KING OF THE CAVE-DWELLERS IX HIS "GARDEN. [Photo. 



THE CAVE-DWELLERS OF EZY. 



249 




THE UEU.E OF THE TKIBE AT BREAKFAST 
From a Photo. 



3f fixing his shirt-band with a thorn 

and putting on a colourless unbuttoned 

waistcoat. Then, with a shrill whistle, 

he introduced us to his seventh wife, who, when 

we snap-shotted her, was having breakfast at 

the cavern door. 

"You have lost six wives, then ?" I remarked. 
" Not lost thein exactly," replied the 
King, carelessly ; " five of them are in 
the village somewhere." Laughing at 
my astonishment, my friend the vine- 
grower informed me that the usual laws 
of civilization do not prevail in the cave- 
dwellers' village, and that the fair sex 
predominate largely. 

We learned that the seventh Madame 
Roclaux was the belle of the village, 
and that the old man had a numerous 
progeny — the Royal Family, so to speak, 
of the cave-dwellers. One of the King's 
daughters, a girl of about thirteen, was 
shortly to be married to a woodman, 
who was to take her to a house — a 
veal house, she said, with some pride 
—not a cave — in the forest. We 
photographed the bridal home of 
Mile. Roclaux on our way back to 
Anet. It will be seen that, although 
picturesque, it is by no means a 
palatial dwelling, but, if physiognomy 
stands for anything, she should be 
happy, for the young woodcutter was 

Vol. xii. — 32. 



a tine figure of a man, 
and he wore an entire 
suit of clothes, which is 
evidently a rarity in that 
part of the world, although 
some of the cave-dwellers 
do " dress up" for their 
excursions into town on 
Sundays and fair days, 
and are extremely proud 
because they do so. We 
found these members of 
the tribe by no means 
reluctant to be photo- 
graphed. 

One package of our 
cigarettes had gone. The 
boys and girls -— it was 
not always easy to dis- 
criminate between the 
sexes — had broken them 
in halves, and all were 
smoking greedily, but 
when we asked to see the 
inside of the caves we 
were not very well re- 
ceived, although the old 
King was quite proud of 
his itite'rieur. He had a 
spacious two-roomed 
rave, which was furnished after a fashion, and 
lighted through the doorway and the chimney. 
a rough hole in the roof. His furniture was a 
quaint mixture of primitive necessities and 




THE BRIDAI 
From tr\ 



HOME OF Till KING'S DAUGHTER— " A REAL HOUSE, NOT A. CAVE, 
SHE CALLED IT. {t hoto. 






THE WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 




village luxury. For in- 
stance, while the tabic was 
built up of three rough 
to cranky log legs with 
them, and the 



planks nailed on 

the bark still on 

bed merely a mattress in the corner, 

there was a quantity of little china 

ornaments such as are bought at fairs ; 

and nailed into the chalk wall of the 

rn was a cuckoo-clock with one 

;it and no hands. "It doesn't 

re Roclaux told us, " but the 

_'it is useful to throw at intruders ! " 

And, to show us, he tried it on a small 

ing in. 

"I'd like my friend to see Julot," 

the vine-grower remarked. 

The cave-dweller King shrugged his 

lis own risk," he said. 

"Julot and la fille Mathilde have not 

le their cave for four days, 

and Jul • likely to be in a good 

tern; <an g> there if you 

•bird cave up the hill, 

a real savage, and 

»glodytes are afraid 

ildest cavern 

I, and is half savage and 

half madman. " Get your cigarettes 



ready and keep the camera out 
of sight as much as possible," 
was the vine-grower's warning 
to me as we 
clambered up 
to the two caves 
which he and 
la fille Mathilde 
inhabited. 

A savage face 
with black hair 
and beard 
peered at us 
out of the semi- 
darkness as we 
approached the 
cave, and a 
moment later a 
large piece of 
rock whirred 
just between 
our two heads, 
but fortunately 
missed us. We 
shouted " Bon- 
jour, Jules ; we 
are bringing 
y o u some 
cigarettes," in 
friendly tones and as cheerfully as we could 
manage in the circumstances ; and Jules, who 
had been sitting up and peering at us from 
his doorway, came out and stood before it. 



CHURCH PARADE. 



[Photo. 




Front a\ 



A COUPLE OF YOUNG TROGLODYTES. 



| Photo. 



THE CAVE - DWELLERS OF EZY. 



251 



The doorway to his cave was not quite three feet 
high, and he had to scramble out through it on 
hands and knees. When lie stood up the 
ground around the entrance was so rocky that 
it was all he could do to keep his balance, 
and our progress towards him was a very slow 
and stumbling one. He was in shirt and 
trousers, and took our cigarettes roughly, but 
apparently in a friendly spirit, snatching them 
from us much in the way that monkeys at the 
Zoo snatch nuts. And then, without a word, he 
turned to crawl back "home,'' but his bulging 
shirt caught in a bit of protruding stone and 
ripped. Jules gave a yell which was almost too 



branches and some ragged-looking cushions. 
No coverlet, no counterpane, no blanket, no 
covering of any sort. Apparently when Jules is 
cold he tears one of his curtains down. I asked 
if this were so, but he refused to answer. 

The bedroom was apparently Jules's dining 
room as well, for by the bed's head were a 
couple of rough earthen pots, and there was a 
wine-bottle at the foot of it, while on the bed 
itself a half-gnawed bone showed that we had 
disturbed the amiable gentleman at dinner. 
Our conversation with him was a short one, and 
his contribution to it mainly grunts and un- 
intelligible sounds. He was not so much 




From a] 



IUI.OT AT THE MOUTH OF HIS CAVE. 



{Photo 



much for my composure, and tore the shirt off, 
trampling it on the rocks under his naked feet 
until they bled. Then he yelled with laughter 
at our evident dismay, and as he did not say we 
might not follow him inside his cavern we 
did so. 

I cannot in this article describe the utter 
horror of the place. It has a sort of window at 
the far end, to which Jules has made a rough 
shutter and over which hung something of the 
nature of a curtain. The cave, like all the 
others, was carved in the chalky limestone of 
the hill and floored with beaten clay. A hole 
served for chimney, and underneath it a few 
bits of dead wood were smouldering. Up in 
the far corner was the " bed," a heap of small 



annoyed at the camera as we expected him to 
be, although the flashlight — we could not resist 
a photograph of him at dinner — brought him to 
his feet with a howl of terror. I do not think 
that he can have seen anything of the kind 
before, and the stench of the magnesium fumes 
in that den of his was terrible. After we had 
taken his picture he threw himself on to his 
couch, after a very summary toilet, and took no 
more notice of us— even when the flashlight 
was set off a second time. 

And now for Mile. Mathilde. She had been 
watching us through the chimney of her neigh- 
bour's cave, and when we penetrated into hers 
she met us smilingly. She was not violent at 
all — at all events, not when we saw her; and 






nil; WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 



r fur- 

iiildc 
bed, 

■ Lire. 




ide it 
m a broken 

nd has a mattress such as more civilized 

mortals who live in real houses usually affect. 

She owns a ragged blanket, 

and some bed clothes too, 

. and as far as I 

d see her clothes and 

the bed - coverings were 

•f the same stuff. 

Matl glory is 



the wall, and T 
do not think she 
ever sits on it. 

And then we 
got away, and 
found to our 
amusement that 
a return to the 
lower portion of 
the cave -village 
seemed almost a 
return to civilized 
existence. Pere 
Roclaux and 
another old man, 
Pere Penet, who 
has a twisted leg 
and hobbles 
about with a 
crutch, were 
much amused at 
our account of 
our reception by 
Julot and Ma- 
thilde, and told 
us that none of the other villagers would dare 
approach them. " He does not often miss his 
shot, le Cas Julot," he said ; and a small boy 
with one foot tied up in blood-stained rags 
grinned meaningly and pointed to it. 









is a real chair, with a 
d 'k at, and has no 

not matter, nor does a 
- - . for it is propped up against 



MAI HILDE, THE PROUD POSSESSOR OF A 

KEAL BED AND A BROKEN CHAIR. 

From n J'/iotn. 



These Troglodytes of Ezy live 
chiefly upon watercress, mushrooms, 
and berries. The country round is 
very rich in these products, and they 
can gather more than sufficient for 
their needs. They grow salads, too, and beans 
in what they call their gardens, and get money 



'THE' CAVE-DWELLERS OF EZY. 



253 



to buy bread, and even wine sometimes, by 
selling cress, mushrooms, and salads that they 
cannot eat themselves, to the villagers in the 
neighbourhood. Two days' hard work for a 
profit of a few halfpence is nothing unusual, and 
our visit, with its harvest of copper coinage and 
even a silver piece or two and cigarettes, would, 
Pere Penet informed us, enrich the colony for 
several days. The way of living of these people- 
is primitive in the extreme. 

They are, when one gets used to their un 
couthness, merry and simple folk, and would be 
quite happy, Pere Penet said, if it were not for 
the rent. 

" The rent ? " I asked. 

"Oh, yes. Our ca\es belong to a vine- 
grower in Ezy, and we pay ten francs a year 
rent for them, or two shillings a quarter." 

" And if you do not pay? " I asked. 

The old man made a sweeping movement 
with his crutch and a sharp hissing sound. 
" Pssst ! Out we go," he said, dramatically. It 
would be laughable if it were not really tragic 
to think of an eviction from such lodgings ; but 
I can quite understand that a landlord would 
not unwillingly get rid of Jules. 

As we were leaving, an extraordinary head, 
with a mouth in it which 
literally stretched from 
ear to ear, rose from a 
hole a little way above 
us. 

" Bochtor ! Bochtor ! " 
the others shouted, and 
in a moment all the 
children, and a number 
of the older folk, yelling 
and laughing, rushed in 
hot pursuit of a strange, 
ape -like creature, who 
came towards us crab- 
fashion upon hands and 
feet, howling a some- 
thing which Pere Ro- 
claux said was meant to 
be the Marseillaise. 
Before we could bring 
the camera into play 
Bochtor had doubled 
and was off again and 
out of sight, the others 
all in hot pursuit, 



yelling and pelting him with stones. Poor 
Bochter is half-witted. He is a youth of 
twenty, and makes such living as he can 
by pulling faces and playing tricks at fairs. 
He often disappears for weeks together, and 
although I went back for a photograph a few 
days after my first visit I found that nobody 
had any news of him, and Julot had gone 
too. But that was quite an ordinary occur- 
rence, and all the Troglodytes were glad when 
Julot went away. 

Bochtor's natural aptitude for making ugly 
faces has been enhanced by a horrible accident 
which he met with about a year ago. Some 
half-drunken villagers bet him a demi seder (a 
quarter of a litre) of red wine that he would not 
hold a billiard-ball inside his mouth. He got it 
in, but could not get it out again, and the poor 
wretch's jaw was broken by its forcible extrac- 
tion. He does not seem to. mind much, we were 
told, for since his accident he is uglier, and 
therefore more popular, than ever, and earns 
countless odds and ends of food, which satisfy, 
or nearly, his enormous appetite. 

As we went back to Anet, a prosperous little 
village nestling in the sunshine, I learned that 
the cave-dwellers' one festivity occurs when one 

of the community hap- 
pens to die. Presum- 
ably in sign of joy that 
one of their number has 
been released from the 
miseries of life, they 
collect all their wealth of 
halfpence and engage in 
a drinking bout which 
usually lasts several days 
and nights. After the 
orgie, when some of 
them have slept off the 
effects and are suffi- 
ciently sober to know 
what they are doing, a 
hole is dug somewhere 
and the body buried in 
it without any further 
ceremony. 

And these people live 
in the twentieth century, 
within a two hours' rail- 
way run and a short 
climb from Paris ! 




JULOT AT THE WINDOW OF His CAVE. 

From a Photo. 




MEJ^OILlNCliAkE 

or jpOMINICA 




officer's account of his visit to the strange Boiling Lake of Dominica. So dreaded is this remarkable 
place, that no native living in the vicinity will go anywhere near it, and its poisonous fumes have proved 
fatal to several previous explorers. The author illustrates his article with a series of striking photographs. 




E, the said Wilfred M. Clive, also 

accidentally, casually, and by mis 

fortune got overpowered by the 

poisonous gas which issued from 

the lake and craters, and before 

could be obtained, then and there 

ed and died. 

ThF .'erdict of a West Indian jury 

which two years ago inquired into the death 

i unfortun: Jish tourist named Clive, 

the terrors of the Boiling Lake of 

It was scarcely reassuring to another 

uld-be explorer. The additional information 

that Mr idedied with him, that another 

•rquently fell into a pool of sulphur 

1 instantly, and that every native dreaded 

ppi h the Boiling Lake was by no means 

Yel srood luck I managed 

to ii thoroughly this mysterious place, 

which had previously been the grave of several 

too curious and intrepid explorers. The result 

of my exploration established the fact that the 

»f Dominica i- >f the most 

interesting acti • face of the 

>e, and yet one of the nown. 

re relatii _ . let me give a 

of the Boiling Like. It is five miles 

; nt from Roseau, the capital of Dominica, 

. ered about thirty years ago. 

its on the island did not know of its 

e that time. The circumstances 

its discovery were as now given. 



One day in the early part of 1870 Mr. Watt, 
a Government official in Dominica, having lost 
his way in the thickly wooded hills in the 
interior of the island, noticed a strong smell of 
sulphur. On proceeding farther he found a 
number of sulphur springs, a circumstance 
which he related on his return to Dr. Nicholls, 
a well known resident. Nothing was done in 
the way of investigating the matter at the time, 
but some years later these two gentlemen again 
visited the spot, and in addition to the springs, 
which they found still active, they discovered a 
remarkable boiling lake. 

live years later an eruption took place from 
the crater in which the Boiling Lake and 
springs both lie — an eruption of sufficient 
violence to discharge ashes over Roseau, five 
miles distant. From that day to this no un- 
usual phenomena have been recorded owing to 
the dread in which the crater is held by the 
few inhabitants in its vicinity. 

This terror was accentuated by the accident 
in 1 901 in which Mr. Clive lost his life. He 
was staying at Roseau whilst on a holiday 
tour from England, and was attracted by 
the curious stories he heard concerning the 
Boiling Lake. Accordingly he made up his 
mind to visit it. Whilst photographing on 
its brink his attention was called by one of 
his native guides — a man named Matson 
Rolle— to the fact that the lake was in an 
unusual condition, inasmuch as it was 



THE BOILING LAKE OF DOMINICA. 



2 55 



in a state of ebullition, but was giving off no 
vapour. 

A few moments later Matson Rolle — as he 
relates the story to me — saw the second guide, 
his bi other Wylie, lying on the ground face 
downwards. Matson Rolle shouted out : " Mr. 
Clive ! Mr. Clive ! Wylie is dead ! " Clive ran 
up to Wylie and gave him some whisky from his 
flask. By this time Matson himself was almost 
asphyxiated by foul gases, and was feeling sick 
and faint. He saw Wylie jerking his hands and 
feet spasmodically, and at Mr. Clive's orders ran 
off to bring a doctor. 

Some hours later a relief party arrived and 
found both Mr. Clive and Wylie lying dead in 
the hollow which the lake occupies. The 
bodies, however, could not be recovered at the 
time, as several of the party were already suffer- 
ing from the effects of gas-poisoning, and it was 
not till four days later that the funeral took 
place at Roseau. The position in which Mr. 
Clive's body was found seemed to suggest that 
after a while he, too, had experienced ill-effects 
from the noxious gases and had attempted to 
get away, but had not moved more than twenty 
yards before he was overcome. 

Some time afterwards another native, 
known locally as Zinzi — the father of Wylie and 
Matson Rolle — while acting as guide to a 
gentleman who is now one of our Colonial 
Governors, fell into one of the pools near the 
sulphur springs and was instantly killed. 




From a] 



A DISTANT VIEW OF THE BOILING LAKE, 



Since the time of Mr. Clive's death no one 
had been to the crater until after the first 
eruption at St. Vincent and Martinique had 
taken place. Mr. Hesketh Bell, the present 
Administrator of the island, then asked Mr. 
Selwyn Branch, a local planter, to make a 
report on its condition. Branch proceeded by 
himself to the lake on the 18th of May and 
found it dry. 

On reaching Roseau on the evening of the 
ioth of June, 1902, I was fortunate enough to 
make Mr. Branch's acquaintance, and was able 
to arrange for the trip to the lake in his com- 
pany on the following morning. In anticipation 
of my arrival two natives had been engaged 
from a distant part of the island to carry 
refreshments, etc., as no one living within many 
miles of the lake would venture near it at any 
price. 

Our start, which was timed for 3.30 a.m., 
was delayed for nearly two hours by the 
non-arrival of our carriers ; but at length the 
party, consisting of Mr. Selwyn Branch, his 
cousin, Mr. George Branch, and myself, set off 
on horseback for Laudat, a mountain village, 
followed by two natives. The road was of the 
poorest, but this was fully compensated for by 
the glorious scenery through which it ran. Pre- 
cipitous wooded cliffs rose on both sides of. the 
Roseau valley to a height of many hundreds of 
feet, while in the depression between them ran 
a mountain stream of considerable dimensions, 

on both banks of 
which planters' 
dwellings could 
be seen, sur- 
rounded with 
groves of lime, 
cocoa, and 
banana trees. 

Twice from the 
road, which as- 
cended the north- 
ern slope of the 
valley, we made 
out hot springs 
at the foot of 
the hills oppo- 
site, throwing up 
steam ; and from 
one spot we 
caught a glimpse 
of the upper por- 
tion of a distant 
water-fall, which 
is reported to 
have a clear 
drop of five hun- 
dred feet. 



IPltoto. 






nil WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE 





Hi IR s PARTY IN rill- 
From a Photo. 



The next four hours' walking pro- 
\ided me with the most severe exertion 
I have ever undergone. I was at a 
c msiderable disadvantage, too, in 
having on a pair of English riding 
breeches, tight at the knees and made 
of thick rloth. We were anxious to 
arrive at the lake early, so as to escape 
the heat of the day, and pushed ahead 
at a very fast walk. The path itself 
was hardly distinguishable, and to the 
unpractised eye could not be seen to 
exist ; in fact, at one place even Selwyn 
Branch lost it altogether and spent half 
an hour before striking it again. 

Tropical forest trees grew every- 
where, meeting overhead and shutting 
out the light and breeze, whilst 
creepers, ferns, and bushes with extra- 
ordinary leaves and stems formed a 
dense undergrowth. Hour after hour 
we toiled along the narrow track in 
single file, sinking at times ankle deep 
in mud and at others slipping on the 
wet, twining tree-roots, which in parts 
covered the whole surface of the 
ground. Sharp stones after a while 
became very noticeable through 
sodden boot - soles, and welcome 
were the places where decaying 
leaves and vegetation had made a 
soft carpet inches deep. 



Parties of natives whom 

- n repair^ 

road, or carrying 

fruit and veget- 

uarket, after 

■ ■ ■ 

died 
in th 
■ I >on't 
Finally, 
• 

just 
in p 

- 
.main i 

if- a 
in 

left 

and 
Mr. 
yn Branch leading. 
cleai 







OF 'Mil-. BOILING Rl 



\rhoto. 



THE BOILING LAKE OE DOMINICA. 



2 57 



Scrambling up almost precipitous cliff-sides, 
with knees touching our chins, and holding on 
with both hands to the coarse, strong grasses 
on either side, we gained summit after summit, 
and only obtained relief from the oppressive 
moist heat of the forest depths when we emerged 
upon some mountain torrent and slipped across 
its boulder-strewn bed. At length, after a long 
pull up a steep, narrow ledge, we arrived on a 
mountain top, from which, for the first time, the 
absence of trees permitted a view of the sur- 
rounding country. This was, in fact, the edge 
of the crater, and in the hollow below steam 
could be s^en rising from the Boiling Lake. 
Deep down at our feet vapour was issuing with 
considerable vi< lence from a number of sulphur 
springs, the odour of which had been perceptible 
for some time pas'. 

Stretching away to the westward as far as tin' 
sea, and separated from the crater by the 
narrowest of ridges, on which we stood, was 
the Roseau valley, whilst a similar natural 
feature extended from the east of the crater, 
which is open on that side, to the windward 
shores of the island. The Boiling Lake appeared 
to be only a few hundred yards away from us, 
but it took us over an hour to reach it from the 
spot where we stood. 

The climb down the almost vertical side of 
the interior of the crater — which is about five 
hundred feet deep— was a difficult undertakin.;. 
The ground was composed of a loose, clayey 
material, very treacher- 
ous under foot, and 
capable of considerably 
accelerating our descent 
— under some thousands 
of tons of decomposing 
rock. A cold wind, too, 
was beating violently 
against us, and this did 
not help us to keep our 
balance. After a rime, 
however, the climbing be- 
came easier, and at length 
we reached the hot springs, 
which, with their sur- 
roundings, bore a striking 
resemblance to similar 
springs I had previously 
visited at St. Lucia, 
though the activity of 
these was cons ; derablv 
greater. 

Steam was rising with 
more or less violence from 
a number of vents in the 
bed of a hot river. From 
one water was 

Vol. xii. — 33. 



sprayed up to a height of twenty or thirty feet 
in the air, the noise of each discharge sound 
ing like the throbbing of a ship's propeller. 

Away from the springs sparkling streamlets 
were to be seen over the whole bottom of the 
crater, the temperature of some being high, 
whilst others were icy cold. The white, yellow, 
and red deposits in their beds lent their colours 
to the water trickling over them. The larger 
streams were in the nature of torrents ; and 
thin, greyish waters dashed down in streaming 
cascades, forming pools over which one could 
scarcely step. The entire bed of the crater 
was composed of the same crumbling, chalky 
material which I found in the St. Lucia 
Soufriere, and there were the same deposits of 
beautiful amber-coloured crystals. 

In one tepid stream I found some curious, 
cigar-shaped caterpillars, about an inch in 
length and a quarter of an inch in diameter : 
and in a shallow excavation which we made 
we discovered the remains of beetles, cock- 
roaches, and spiders still in a perfect state of 
preservation, but encased in a coating of fine 
sulphur. All this time the smells around us 
were most offensive, and the carriers, who had 
followed us so far, were becoming terrified and 
were on the point of bolting back. 

Curiously enough, the vegetation in this reek- 
ing inferno did not seem to have suffered much, 
and only rarely were any signs of blight or even 
discoloration visible. After crossing three 



being 



THE nOILING LAKE, PHOTOGRAPHED THROUGH THE CLOUD? 

COVER ITS SURFACE. 



OF STEAM WHICH PERPETUALLY 






fHE WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 




'A, /!<///, 



/ <<&< 



/ /< //i i // > 1 1 1 




■ 





7 

... 

















the 
they 
were 
tions 

wind. 



LAKK, THE SULPHUR SPRINGS, AND rHE 

Fron by the Author. 



IOT RIVKKs. 



small hot-water rivers, separated from each 

otlv . bush-covered ridges, we finally 

d ourselves looking down into the weird 

This extraordinary sheet of 

at the bottom of a basin, which has 

-ides cliffs forty or fifty feet in height. The 

lake does not entirely fill the bottom of this 

-. as there is a flat ledge running 

d the edge, which varies in width from 

nty yards on the west to almost 

. i the east. 

about fifty yards in diameter and 

two pure cold-water streams, one of 

ich enters the hollow in the form of a 

■eautiful cascade. ray mingling with the 

ma- m rising from the boiling water. 

In view ol 1 fatality at this spot the 

hollow was a risky experiment. 

• \er, one at a time. 

vere noticeable, we 

all : vn there together. Then 

'.lie relics of poor Clive's party. 

ig on the ground were a dilapidated native 

■ with steam, an enamelled iron 

:i pannikin, a rusty cutlass, and a 

cup th i to Wylie. 

dark water of the lake beat 

. eiks, whilst in the centre — 

point of activity — the ebul- 



tremity of the lake 



lit ion was so violent that 
at times a dome -shaped 
mass of water rose to a 
height of four or five 
feet, to subside again 
suddenly into innumer- 
able bubbles and wave- 
lets. Dense clouds of 
steam were being given 
off all the time from 
the whole surface of 
lake. These, as 
rose into the air, 
blown in all direc- 
by a strong, cold 
The latter strik- 
ing one's face in the 
intervals contrasted un- 
pleasantly with the moist 
warmth of the steam. 
There was little noise in 
the hollow, and the sul- 
phur smell was not nearly 
so strong as in the vicinity 
of the springs. 

At the eastern ex- 
the water found egress 
through a narrow "V" shaped opening in 
the cliffs, and joined farther down the other 
streams which issued from the crater. After 
refreshing ourselves from the cascade and 
laughing at the terror of our native carriers — 
whom nothing would have induced to descend 
to the water's edge — I walked round to the 
farther end of the lake, so as to have the wind 
behind me in photographing its boiling surface. 
In returning I had a narrow escape of slipping 
into the water. The treacherous edge crumbled 
away under my feet without warning, and I only 
just succeeded in saving myself and my camera 
from what I was told would have been certain 
death in the seething waters of the lake. 

None of us were sorry when we turned back 
at last, and had recrossed the swampy crater 
floor and reclimbed its side. Arrived at the top 
once more, we could see traces of the eruption 
of 1880 in the shape of a few stunted tree-trunks, 
similar to those to be found all over the destroyed 
areas round Mont Pelee and the Soufriere of St. 
Vincent. And so we bade farewell to the Boiling 
Lake and set off on our return journey. "We 
reached Roseau twelve hours after leaving it in 
the morning, our horses quite tired out, and I, 
at least, have no wish ever to make that journey 
again. 




n 



Ine hero of the most lurid melodrama ever staged 

was never placed in a more awful position than that 

of Conductor Fred Loomis, the central figure of this 

narrative. Two train -wreckers laid a dastardly plot to blow up a 

bridge and hurl a train down a precipice. The conductor learnt of 

the scheme and endeavoured to warn the train, but was captured by 

the robbers, who, in revenge, bound him to the doomed bridge, directly over the lighted mine ! 








T the time of this story Captain Fred 
Loomis, who narrated it to me, was 
a railway conductor. He ran the 
" mixed " train, freight and passenger, 
between the little junction town of 
Englewood, six miles below Deadwood, and the 
city of Spearfish, in the heart of the famous 
Black Hills of Dakota. 

This road was insignificant in point of track- 
age, as it was only thirty-one miles in length. 
But it boasted no fewer than three hundred and 
seventy curves! There were two loops in that 
thirty-one miles, seven ellipses, and the letter 
" S " four times, to say nothing of just the plain 
curves. Likewise, to add to the tangled-'up 
nature of the right of way, there were thirty-three 
bridges — big bridges and little bridges, complex 
and simple ones. Then a part of the line stood 
practically " on end," the gradient of one con- 
siderable stretch, where the road followed the 
old Spearfish River bed, being over two hundred 
feet to the mile ! 

A great many tourists now add this beautiful 
canyon to their itinerary as a side trip, but in 



the earlier days these gloomy gorges afforded 
ideal localities for the work of the train wrecker. 
That no such affair ever reached a successful 
culmination, however, was due partly to the 
robbers' " bad luck," but chiefly to intrepid 
train-crews and the safeguarding regulations of 
the railroad corporation. 

Nowadays, while the wild mountain scenery 
remains intact, there are too many settlements 
and outlying "cliff-dwellers" in the gorges to 
make such deeds possible, or at least promising, 
to prospective "hold-ups." Probably the nearest 
approach to a successful " plant " by these gentry 
is embodied in this experience of Mr. Loomis. 

One morning in the fall of 1887 Conductor 
Loomis's train — the "accommodation" for 
Spearfish— while " looping the loop " on this 
wonderfully tangled-up stretch of road near 
Spearfish Canyon, directly beyond the "Deep 
Cut Rock " curve, had a " close call for the 
ditch " by running into a big land-slide. Land- 
slides being unusual at that season, this one 
caught the engineer only partially on his guard, 
and the engine's nose was fairly into the slide 






THE WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 



: is :• mm. The consequence 
ition" was stalled there 
g it hours, shovellers having to be 
i brakeman on foot from Spear 

onus resolved to improve 
new small calibre Rem 
in hour or so. He was 
v inclined, and the canyons were 

with hirds. 

ul preliminary look around, there 

vide first of all tor the comfort of 

the conductor scrambled leisurely 

rth wall beyond " I >eep ( lit." 

'. - with his shot-gun. the loose, 

■:! made it an excessivel) difficult 

nly, upon rounding a huge abutment ol 

■no hundred feet from the base of the 

mis • ught to attention with a 

beholding, not a dozen paces 

lad of him. a full-grown mountain cat- the 

anin rally referred to in Western America 

- mething seemed to be amiss 

as the hunter ji'dged instantly 

arattitui 

I performanet s : and 

n advancing 

• d to dis- 
r that one of its 
had 
- : by 
land - slide. 
I that a p< 

. was 
pinning that 
• ■ the 
. n d . 

_ht 

snarling brut 

the moment it 

. a 

rm 

id 

mis beheld 

the animal in 

■ 

- ■ 
ul and the 

jling 

] u e n 1 1 ;. 
spoke the lions 







.11!:: E OF ITS FOREI'AWS 

HT BY THE LAND-SI 



The loud hissing of escaping steam from the 
engine below, together with the loud roaring of 
the wind — which in the Spearfish gorge is never 
quiet — had drowned the sound of the beast's 
angry protests until Looniis was close to it, and 
the unexpected encounter startled him. Averse 
to "potting" even a "raging lion" when help- 
less, Mr. Loomis paused to consider what was 
best to do. He was in want of just such a 
"specimen," wishing to have the same mounted 
for a friend in the Last. Here was a chance, 
with a little care, to give the beast his quietus 
without injury to the fur or hide. He had his 
revolver. One shot in the ear of the lion, 
and the thing would be done. 

Just here, however, came another surprise, 
which changed the whole aspect of affairs. 
While Loomis stood hesitating, a second brute, 
a male of the same species of cat, came bound- 
ing down the steep incline, giving voice to a 
steady and deafening roar — a sound which 
jarred the conductor's nerves, and induced him 
to retreat forthwith behind a boulder. 

" lotting" a trapped female mountain lion at 
close range, and engaging her rampant lord 

and master in a 
hand-to-hand 
conflict, when 
one's only wea- 
pons are a simple 
bird gun and a 
pocket pistol, are 
two very different 
propositions. 

The conduc- 
tor, therefore, 
wisely decided to 
keep in hiding 
behind the boul- 
der and content 
himself with 
such stolen ob- 
servation as 
seemed comfort- 
ably conducive 
to health. 

The majestic 
male beast 
seemed at a loss 
just at first what 
to make of his 
companion's pre- 
dicament. First 
he "nosed" 
about the rock near the 
imprisoned foot, once 
or twice striking the 
impediment with his 
paw as though to test 



WHAT HAPPENED AT BRIDGE "21. 



261 




' DEEI> CUT ROCK, NEAR WHICH CONDUCTION I 

From a\ into the land-si.idi-. 



T K XIX R A > 

[i'lioto. 



its stability ; and then he fell to caressing the 
face of his captive mate with his muzzle, with 
an appearance of almost human sympathy. By 
his expression and actions he seemed to be 
announcing to the female that no assistance was 
in any way possible. 

Suddenly, as Loomis 
craned his neck eagerly 
round the boulder, watch- 
ing the animals, two 
deafening rifle-shots rang 
out from some near-by 
spot, and with a shriek 
of agony and one deep 
and convulsive shudder 
the captive female fell 
over dead. Apparently 
slightly hit, the terrified 
male disappeared up the 
mountain side, the air 
filled with his howls of 
pain and fright. 

Glancing round in 
surprise the conductor 
soon discovered the 
marksmen. On the in- 
stant the rifle-shots 
sounded two stalwart 
men, one a white and 
the other a Northern 
Cheyenne Indian, as his 



head-gear made plain, broke from cover a few- 
feet to the east of the railroad man's hiding- 
place, having been crouching there, apparently 
engaged, as Loomis was, in watching the 
manoeuvres of the animals. 

As the pair came hurrying along, the white 
Granger noisily and the Indian stoically jubilant, 
Loomis felt a curious premonition to be wary of 
them. Instead of greeting them cheerily, there 
fore, as it was his first impulse to do, and con- 
gratulating them upon the result of their shots, 
he remained perfectly quiet. Had the approach- 
ing men not been so intent upon their quarry— 
the white stranger essayed a second shot at the 
fleeing lion as he and the red man ran forward— 
they must surely have perceived this predecessor 
of theirs before the boulder once more hid the 
latter from view. 

A moment later the fragment of a sentence 
which fell from the lips of the on-coming white 
stranger not only served to startle the concealed 
Loomis. but caused him at the same instant to 
bless the lucky premonition of danger which 
had kept him hidden. 

"Tulip," Loomis heard the white man re- 
mark, gaspingly, to his companion, as the pair 
sped past, " them bullets was meant for Tom 
( )rmsby, but " 

Just then, however, the speaker's foot sank 
into a slight depression and caused him to 
stumble, so that the balance of his words were 
inaudible. 

This was one of those occasions, however, 




A VIEW IN Sl'EARFlSH CANYON. 



[Burlington Railroad. 






THE WIP1. WORLD MAGAZINE. 



iad revealed a whole 

e hiding man would have been 

had he hoard no more 

p," which told him who 

lian was. He identified 

hin this name as a renegade 

•roper tribal nam : was " Two 

i K.r v apture, as I oomis re 

Is were 

pending for 

nun i m e s , i n - 

murders. 

•• 1 om i " was to 

.ai equall) 

r name, Ormsby 

g then, and as late 

. die railroai 

ger on this 
the Burlington 

running men 

had by this time readied 

t where die moun- 

lion lay, its last eon 

vuls and 

began to 

ith his knife, pre- 

. inning it, 

the 1 man e<: 

limit of 

his shelter, determined 

5 much of any 

inal plot which might 

he could learn 

overhearing the talk 

of these two men. 

" 1 ulip" • Ormsby on his future "scalp 

the time, as Loom is happened to know. 

for the - one day some months 

this, had put the Indian off the "blind 

' just out of Englewood. An Indian 

rgets an injury, if he ever does ; and 

he never foi g me. 

Indian's white companion 

the o nductor was uncertain. If it 

to be a rado called "Buck" 

as he half suspected — that 

a at the time but shortly out of the 

dal prison — then there was surely some 

us mi being concocted. Forsyth 

lid not have tarried even the eight or nine 

out of duress in this country, 

well known, without having some 

it " in sight. 

it turned out, was to find out very 

lat it was indeed Buck Forsyth 

m he was eavesdropping, but that 

there really was a " plant : hatching ; he was to 

learn all the infamous details of the same ; and 




« iiVDL'l I in; FUIU) LOOM I 



likewise he was to find out what a dangerous 
game eavesdropping is. He was to have all 
this knowledge forced upon him, furthermore, 
under most disagreeable circumstances. 

The first half dozen sentences which Loomis 
was enabled to catch from his new position at 
the edge of the rock put him practically in 
possession of the rough outlines of a plot which, 

for sheer cruelty and 
cold blooded wickedness, 
he had never thought 
it possible for human 
beings to conceive. Yet 
these men, or fiends, 
were discussing the 
actual execution of the 
dastardly work with the 
same calmness they 
would have manifested 
in arranging an ordinary 
business venture. 

Rendered desperate 
and impatient by the 
uniform failure of all 
prior train-wrecking and 
hold - up plots in this 
vicinity — intrepid train- 
crews having succeeded 
in besting the robbers 
in every attempt up to 
date, generally by simply 
being " prepared " for 
the latter, and proving to 
be the handiest artists 
with the shooting - irons 
- this pair of rascals 
had concocted a murderous scheme which 
was to effectually dispose of these obstinate 
employes and enable them to loot a train at 
their leisure. In plain words, they proposed, 
by the use of giant powder skilfully placed, 
to wreck Bridge "21" at the moment when 
the 12.40 morning up - train should be well 
upon that structure, in such a manner as to 
let the train itself fall into the dry river gorge 
which Bridge "21" had been built to span. 
Only the " rankest of luck," as the white 
scoundrel expressed it, could leave anyone on 
the train sufficiently alive after the catastrophe 
to offer resistance. Those who were not stunned 
or killed by the concussion of the dynamite 
would be disposed of effectually by falling with 
the wreckage into the old river-bed— a matter 
of some sixty-five feet. The robbers were to 
await the outcome of the explosion in some safe 
spot on the upper bank. If things " went off" 
to suit them after they had sprung their mine, 
they were then to hasten down to the battered 
wreck of the train and loot it. 



[Photo. 



WHAT HAPPENED AT BRIDGE "21. 



263 



Horrified and excited at what he had over- 
heard, Loomis inadvertently stuck his face a 
little too far above the edge of the boulder — for 
just the fraction of a minute. " Which fool 
features," said Mr. Loomis in relating the story, 
" that lynx-eyed redskin espied as quick as a 
flash." With the leap of a panther the Indian 
sprang upon the white man and pinned him 




THE INDIAN STRANG UPON THE WHITE MAN AND FINNED HIM BACK AGAINST THE. BOCK. 



back against the rock, with the grip of iron 
fingers at his throat and a knife poised over 
his heart. 

Loomis had no time to use his own weapons, 
the action was so rapid — and physically he was 
no match for the brawny savage. 

Of more brutal nature even than the Indian, 
the white desperado hastened to the spot, 
sputtering vicious oaths as he came, and with 
no word of warning dealt the conductor, help- 
less prisoner though he was, a heavy blow 
across the temples with the butt of his rifle, 
knocking the unfortunate man senseless. 

This entire adventure, or series of adventures, 
so far, had occupied, all told, less than fifty 



minutes. Quite within hailing distance under 
ordinary conditions were half-a-dozen human 
beings — passengers and railroad employes — all 
of them entirely ignorant of what was being 
enacted above them. 

When Loomis next came to his senses he 

found himself lying, bound hand and foot, on 

what seemed to be the floor of a small, dark 

cave, partially lighted by two resinous 

pine-fagots stuck into crevices in the 

rocky sides. Many of these caves 

exist in this South Dakota limestone 

formation, some of them extending for 

miles under the hills. 

Kneeling close by, 
looking him intently in 
the face and seemingly 
in an attitude of strained 
listening, were his two 
captors. 

A moment more and 
the prisoner heard the 
booming noise made 
by the locomotive's fog- 
siren, and knew straight- 
way that this was not 
only what the two men 
were listening to hear 
repeated, but that it was 
a signal of warning and 
recall for himself. 

It was then nearly 
night-fall. The section- 
hands and train - crew, 
as Loomis learned later, 
had at length despaired 
of removing the ob- 
struction from the right- 
of - way before being 
overtaken by darkness, 
and so had " cross-cut " 
the loop with a tem- 
porary line of rails, 
which would allow the 
belated "accommodation" to edge cautiously 
around the land-slide. 

Everything being in readiness, the fog-horn 
must have been sounding at intervals for 
nearly an hour to call in the missing conductor, 
before its jarring resonance brought that gentle- 
man back to life. This fact he also learned 
subsequently. 

Search parties were finally sent out from the 
train to ascertain if the conductor had met 
with an accident, and one of these groups of 
anxious searchers passed within six feet of the 
cave in which the very person they were in 
search of was secreted, the entrance of the 
cavern being hidden in dense brush. 






Illi: WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 



in the cavern heard the party 
if their talk being distin 
I oomis was tempted to 

At the first mo\ ;>en 

veiled their revolvers 

tive's head. The < \ 

l, bent his menacing glance lull 

t' the captive with a look which 

the latter to make a sound : and 

nvict maintained until the 

rty had out o( hearing. To 



the picturesque Spearfish side trip is made 
over a busy stretch of track, the town itself 
being a modern city of considerable importance. 
The danger of an attempt at the rescue of 
their prisoner being thus averted, the two 
['loiters engaged for some moments in an 
earnest conversation in the Indian tongue, of 
which Loomis knew enough to ascertain that 
his own doom was being discussed. The white 
man suggested that it would be wise to hold their 
prisoner as a hostage. He pointed out that if 




KU I III HA.NDKE i ■ • , \i , HIM." 



himself future bother of the kind, Forsyth 

. handkerchief at this 
2, him. 

m eternity to the prisoner, 

h dark, the belated Spearfish 

nt puffing down the canyon 

: - uardian ; the exigencies of the 

th the importunities of the 

clayed passengers, having 

rendered the departure imperative. 

da t ion ; ' was at that time the 
_;ular train on the branch, though to-day 



their work at Bridge "21" by any mischance went 
wrong and they themselves got captured, they 
''Mild say that unless they were set at liberty 
the life of Loomis would be forfeited. They 
would leave him gagged and bound in this cave, 
the location of which was known only to them- 
selves, and if their captors refused to make terms 
then Loomis would be left to his fate. 

This " Buck " Forsyth was the same reprobate 
who had robbed the Canton Bank two years 
before, at which time he had not only shot the 
bank's aged president, but had also fired 



WHAT HAPPENED AT BRIDGE "21. 



265 



indiscriminately into a crowd of non-interfering 
bystanders, wounding four, the murderous 
scoundrel having performed this latter deed 
from pure wantonness. A reward of some 
twenty-five hundred dollars had induced one of 
Forsyth's accomplices to assist the detectives in 
effecting his capture, and he had only recently 
left prison after serving his sentence. 

"Buck" Forsyth was an absolutely unscrupu- 
lous and extremely dangerous man, most of whose 
life had been lived between stone walls. He 
possessed, however, a certain shrewdness of the 
criminal variety. It was a clever idea of his to 
safeguard himself and his partner against 
possible imprisonment by holding Loomis — 
who, as Forsyth knew, had relations high up in 
the councils of the Burlington Railroad — as a 
hostage for their own freedom. 

This detail disposed of, the two robbers fell 
to discussing their nefarious enterprise, seeming 
to be in doubt as to which direction a bridge of 
the "21 " class would fall when disrupted by 
giant powder. 

Bridge "21," which had been selected as the 
scene of the coming tragedy, was an old- 
fashioned " box " bridge, enclosed in plank and 
roofed over in the form of a square tunnel — a 
style of structure more common in the early 
days of railroads than it was even in 1887. 

Twice when a look of intelligence came to 
the prisoner's face while his captors were dis- 
cussing the fall of the bridge, and again when 
his horror at some fiendish detail of the plot 
manifested itself in the conductor's features, 
Forsyth, suspecting that the prisoner under- 
stood their talk, scowlingly peered into the 
latter's face, as if in doubt whether that fact 
called for a blow or not ; and at length, when 
it happened again, Forsyth deliberately gathered 
a handful of loose dirt and packed it tightly 
into the prisoner's ears. After this Loomis 
heard no more. 

But he was doing, all this time, a little quiet 
plotting himself. 

How he got through the long, weary hours 
up to midnight he could never recall. His 
vision limited to that murky cave, his limbs 
bound, his mouth gagged, nothing to rest his 
eyes upon in the dim light save the villainous 
features of that precious pair of cut-throats, he 
would have found solace, had he not been thus 
ruthlessly robbed of his hearing, in listening to 
the sounds from without — the fury of the 
mountain gale and the occasional scream of 
some prowling beast. 

As midnight drew nigh the captive affected 
an air of drowsiness, and when, soon after, the 
robbers sought to tighten his bonds, preparatory 
to starting forth uoon their awful work, they 

Vol. xii. — 34. 



were obliged to bestow a number of vicious 
digs upon his ribs to secure more wakeful 
attention. 

As a result of this assumed indifference the 
two miscreants were content with a careless twist 
or two at the captive's bonds, deeming them 
already secure ; and, as a further outcome of the 
conductor's bogus sleepiness, barely had the 
two scoundrels disappeared in the outer dark- 
ness, some twenty minutes prior to midnight, 
heading toward Bridge " 21," before Conductor 
Loomis, freed of bonds and gag, and with his 
ears cleared of impediments, was directing his 
way furtively and cautiously in the same general 
direction. 

Although some sixteen years have elapsed 
since that eventful night in the old conductor's 
career, I noticed a pallor in his cheeks and an 
unmistakable tremor in his voice when he 
recounted to me the balance of the awful ex- 
periences of that night. He had, of course, 
been disarmed when made captive by the train- 
wreckers ; and besides taking away his weapons 
they had cleared his pockets of all the cash they 
contained. Two things only they had over- 
looked, or else neglected to remove, deeming 
them valueless — two railway " torpedoes " or 
detonators. These Loomis discovered when he 
instinctively ran his hands through his pockets 
after rising to his feet a free man, and they 
suggested to him at once a way of warning the 
train, which must even now be coming on 
towards destruction. 

Until satisfied that no unlucky chance had 
caused either of the two miscreants to be listen- 
ing near the cave, whereby his escape would 
be known, the conductor paused breathlessly 
between his steps, keenly alert for suspicious 
sounds ; but at length, reassured, he moved 
down the dark mountain slope at the best pace 
consistent with a pathway filled with unseen 
dangers. 

Reaching the abrupt bend in the canyon wall, 
at the spot from which the trend is due south 
into Spearfish City, he saw instantly, reflected 
on the dark sky, the glow from the opened 
furnace door of the up-train's locomotive. Then 
there fell on his ear, a second later, the laboured 
exhaust and churning tremble as the train itself 
took the heavy grade ; and he knew from these 
signs that the time for action was close at hand. 

Above all the more or less imaginary fears 
which harassed the conductor there was one 
imminent danger which, if it came — and the 
anxious conductor knew it might develop at any 
moment^would, he feared, make all rescue of 
the imperilled train by his aid impossible. This 
was the rising moon, now nearly due. The 
plan which had flashed across his brain like an 






riu Wide world magazine. 



while still a prisoner, bound and 

was the simple one ot heading the two 

:' in the race for the bridge and 

iin-crew of the perils ahead. He 

meet the train a safe distance 

i the incline, a matter of say one hundred 

w Bridge u 2i," and swing himself 

ird the engine, as they would be running a 

up the heavy grade. Failing 

this he could warn the engineer that something 

using the detonators which, as 

luck would have it. the train-wreckers had left 

him. 

At the very instant when his foot struck the 
railway embankment the contingency he had 
dreaded came to pass — a broad shaft of moon- 
light shot down the mountain and illumined 
the gorge with the brightness of day ! 

The escaping prisoner had directed his course 
perly, and had come out near the peak of 
the incline on the Spearfish side of Bridge " 21," 
but decidedly in too close proximity to that 
structure to suit him, considering that the moon 
was shining, and that there were a pair of 
ant and murderous train-wreckers likely to 
add themselves without warning to the land- 
scape. From this point onward I cannot do 
better than tell the story in Loomis's own words. 

I'll admit I was scared. I was grey-headed 
at thirty. That night's experience was the 
principal cause of it. 

Until I struck the track and the big round 
moon came into sight, luck seemed coming 
my way. But then I began having trouble. 
Naturally, the first thing I did was to take 
a glance over toward the bridge, which was 

rcely twenty yards away. 

Right in the centre of the track, but luckily 
looking in the other direction, I beheld the two 
hold-ups. They were both of them big fellows, 
but either the manner in which the light struck 
them or the state of my nerves gave them the 
;re of giants. I was too frightened to run, 

. just did the next best thing and sat down. 
I tried to look as small as I could, hoping they 
would look over me. 

' Rattled " is about the word to express my 

condition of mind. I couldn't think for a 

couple of minutes what course to take. I knew, 

r, a second later that I'd got to do some- 

:hing, and that mighty quick, for I could feel 

the ground begin to tremble under me with the 

;ht of the approaching train. 

le two robbers had all the guns, both 

mine and their own ; and here, sixty feet to one 

side of me, was a covered bridge all mined to 

blow up, to let a train full of human beings fall 

down a precipice, while half a mile or less on 



the other side was the train itself which, as soon 
as it got up the grade, would come toward me 
at the top of its speed. Betwixt me and the 
bridge were the robbers, in easy rifle-shot dis- 
tance, getting ready to touch off the fuse, and 
the moonlight showed up just in time to make 
every move of mine seen, and show the hold-ups 
a good place to aim. 

That was the lay-out. Wouldn't that have 
" rattled " most men ? 

Well, presently, as if I were not already in 
plain enough sight, the flash of the locomotive's 
head-light came shimmering down the narrow 
track, and focused full on me. I don't believe 
a single spear of it went any farther than just to 
light me up. Anyhow, I thought so then. 

And it was at this interesting juncture that 
Tulip, the Cheyenne, turned to look at the train 
and spied me ! I never found out whether he 
recognised me as his recent prisoner or not. 
When the Indian yelled and struck out for 
me — Forsyth being needed to watch the fuse 
they had by that time lighted somewhere close 
to the bridge — why, I naturally struck out also. 
I can speak jestingly of all this now, but I was 
serious enough when it was all transpiring, you 
may rest assured. 

The only really logical thing I did in this part 
of the adventure was to place those two 
" torpedoes " — which I had in my hand ready 
for emergencies — on the rails, one on each side 
of where I was sitting, before I started that race 
for life. 

I was somewhat less heavy twenty years back 
than I am to-day, and I put up a pretty good 
race for a non-professional sprinter. If the 
distance 'twixt me and the on-coming train had 
been three - fourths of a mile, instead of less 
than half of that, I think I should have won. 

As it was, at about my tenth leap, a pistol 
cracked behind me and a cold, tingling sensa- 
tion across my wrist — there where you see that 
white ridge— told me that I was hit. I had my 
two hands pressed to my sides while running, 
and one of half-a-dozen shots the Indian let 
loose at me passed between my left arm and 
my body, just grazing my wrist. 

Thinking I was seriously hurt I mechanically 
slowed down a trifle, and the red man caught me. 
He just wrapped those two sinewy arms of his 
about my body, managing between his gasps for 
breath to work in a few guttural Cheyenne 
swear words — and the next thing I fully realized 
was that I was being bound to an upright in 
the south entrance of the covered bridge. I 
knew intuitively that I was being placed where 
the exploding giant powder would put it out of 
my power to make further trouble for the train- 
robbers. I said a short prayer beneath my 



WHAT HAPPENED AT BRIDGE "21." 



267 




A PISTOL CRACKED BEHIND MK. 



breath, though the horror of the thing, the 
rapid sequence of events, and the long string of 
exciting incidents I had taken part in naturally 
tended to prevent my fully realizing what was 
about to befall. 

I don't believe I was really frightened at 
that moment. I was too benumbed, or men- 
tally paralyzed. I remembered later that I 
gazed curiously up through the long black 
bridge tunnel, then down into the gloomy 
abyss between the open sleepers below my feet. 

And then — then came the sound which 
cleared my fogged brain ! I heard the splutter- 
ing noise of a burning fuse ! Another second, 
and I saw a shower of sparks, down in the 
underpinning beneath the bridge. 

I had heard the whistle of cannon-balls when 
a very young man, and the "ping" of rifle 
bullets close at hand, but not once had I heard 



a sound so indescribably para- 
lyzing as that half-muffled hissing 
beneath my feet. 

Then came a glare of light, 
looking as big as though the 
midday sun itself had dropped 
down out of the sky before my 
eyes ; I felt myself seized in a 
powerful grasp, heard a subdued 
muttering, and — well, I thought 
it was all over. 

I awoke to find myself in a 
room at the Spearfish hotel, safe 
and sound, save for the trifling 
flesh-wound where Tulip's bullet 
had grazed my wrist ! 

It was several days before I 
gathered all the details of what 
transpired there in the canyon 
over and above what I had myself 
gone through. 

It seems that after the up- 
train reached the top of the hill 
she stopped to set down the 
first contingent of a party of 
searchers who had been sent 
out from Spearfish to scour the 
hills in search of myself — a 
possible action on the part of 
my friends which, in my excite- 
ment, had never occurred to 
me. Two other similar parties 
were to be put off the train 
farther along in the cut, it 
having been decided that I 
had met with some serious 
mishap. 

The locomotive had scarcely 

begun moving again after this 

dead stop when it ran over the 

two warning " torpedoes " I had placed on the 

track ; and then the engineer, Maxwell, shut off 

power again. 

Without this second pause, it was figured out 
later, the train would just have been entering 
the bridge when the "blow-up" came. This, 
however, wasn't a very serious explosion 
after all. The powder was apparently wet ; and 
although the explosion loosened three or four 
sleepers, and might have derailed the train, it 
was a practical "fizzle." There was quite 
enough force in it, however, to have sent me out 
of the world, as I was fastened almost directly 
above the mine. 

Jumping off the engine when the " torpedoes " 
exploded, both engineer and fireman caught 
sight of me fastened up there in the full glare 
of the head-light. They suspected from prior 
experiences what was afoot, and at the im- 






!HK WIDE WOR1 D MAGAZINE 



rushed to 
.1 carried me out 

Both Forsyth and 

.« had, d when the) saw how 

had fallen through ; though 



killed by a Dakota sheriff's posse, five years ago, 
while they were trying to arrest him for stealing 
horses which was one of "Two Leaps's" 
specialities. 

I may be mistaken as to this, however, as 
re were a number of similar occurrences a 




IED TO MV KESCUE AND CUT MY BONDS 



i not sorry to add that Forsyth was hai 
own in I 

Time there: and I i that that squares 
. and m 

i me of th- I eyenne has 

m >' n f have just a faint 

Election, however, that it was he who was 



few years back in the South Dakota " Bad 
Lands." Nevertheless, it is fairly safe, I think, 
to say that "Two Leaps'' has gone to the happy 
hunting-grounds of the red men. What he is 
doing there, of course, I do not know; but he 
will steal horses if there is the least bit of a 
chance. 



Our Trek into Griqualand. 

By Mrs. Fred Maturin. 
II. 

The authoress undertook a long and arduous trek into Griqualand in a Cape-cart in order to 
witness something of the " repatriation " of the Boers. She describes her adventures in a bright 
and amusing fashion, and throws some interesting side-lights on the state of affairs now prevailing 

in the new Colonies. 




E did not get away from Wolmaran- 
stad till 5 p.m. 

Our next stop was to be a winkel 
(store) thirty miles away, at Riet- 
fontein, a lonely enough spot in the 
heart of the veldt, as, indeed, Wolmaranstad 
i'.self is. The storekeeper, however, is obliged 
by Government to keep three beds for travellers, 
and to this haven we pressed on, darkness 
rapidly closing in round us. 

Had anyone at Wolmaranstad offered even 
me, the one lady of the party, a bed for the 
night, knowing that the chances were against 
our reaching any shelter that night, we would 
gladly have waited, but, as it was, we had 
perforce to go on. 

We felt wretched as the night grew apace, 
enveloping the great silent desert around us 
in an impenetrable blackness. No stars or 
moon shed on us their friendly beam ! Black 
clouds hid them from earth. Low and 
ominous rumblings on the horizon told of a 
coming storm, and an African thunderstorm 
on the open veldt at night, in a Cape -cart 
with no lights and a team of sixteen terrified 
mules, is apt to be a serious matter. 

The darkness grew intense. The road was 
a mere rough track, and consisted of deep 
heavy sand through which our wheels dragged 
noiselessly and painfully. 

The mules seemed worn out, and had to 
be urged on every moment. Far as the eye 
could reach was darkness, and, as I have 
already observed, we had no lights of any kind. 

" Me-Charlie " kept saying, " We can't be far 
from Rietfontein now," but, alas ! no cheering 
spark denoted any sign of human habitation ; 
and every time we asked the Kaffir, "Where 
is the winkel, boy ? " he would point with his 
whip through the darkness, and say, mournfully, 
" Ha— ar is de winkel!'" 

Dar, short and not drawn out, means that 
the distance is not great, but if they say Da — ar, 
long drawn out, the distance is as great in pro- 



portion as the time ihat the voice spenas over 
the word ! So each time he gave us a long 
Da — a — ar our hearts sank more and more. 

A gleam of a far-distant light at last ! On 
we pressed, and in about an hour it seemed 
appreciably nearer. Our spirits revived, when 
suddenly down tore the mules into a deep 
spruit or river, which we, of course, could not 
see ahead of us. We simply found ourselves 
shooting down a steep incline, and then crash 
into some deep water ! A wheel went up on 
to a rock, and over we toppled. 

A scene of fearful confusion followed in the 
darkness. The hood alone saved me shooting 
into the water, but I hung on. " Me-Charlie " 
and Spotty burst into imprecations at each 
other. The mules plunged. The Kaffir shouted. 
I was told to hold on, and finally, after about 
twenty minutes, the cart was righted, and we 
emerged on the opposite bank more dead than 
alive. 

The red light now shone down on us from 
the black brow of what was evidently a hill, and 
we made for it. It tvas not the winkel ! 

Instead, a long, low farm was disclosed, and 
as we drew up a Boer came out and informed 
us, to our dismay, that the winkel was still ten 
miles away on quite another track, and we could 
never reach it that night ! As he spoke a vivid 
flash of forked lightning rent the black sky 
ahead of us. 

We asked him if he would give us shelter. 
" Yes," he said ; but he had only one bedroom, 
which the lady could have, and the two gentle- 
men must sleep in the stoep. 

He seemed a friendly old fellow, and I was 
for accepting his offer at once, but my two com- 
panions seemed nervous, and feared treachery. 

We had no idea where we were. Some of 
these outlying farms are exceedingly lonely. 
We might very easily be made away with out of 
revenge or robbery ; and who would ever trace 
us ? We had evidently strayed from the beaten 
track. 



THE WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 



ning rumble and flash, how- 

We would risk it. 

\\ i and told the Kaffir to out- 

ep under the cart himself, 

to be in readiness in 

d him. 

ushered us into his kitchen, 

I a pretty young girl of eighteen— 

and marvellously spruce and 

three little girls, and two lads 

n and sixteen, whom he introduced as 

lildren. 

in deep mourning. The mother 
and three other children had died in the 
■ trati< in camp. 
The whole party stared at US with open- 
mouthed interest I :. v never see a human 
I is was the first farm we had passed 
roof on, and 
:iad already seen 
r mor- 
ion bla< kened 
ruins. W d the 

. and the far- 
mer said it was be- 
the h< 

man's. 
who ha' . it. 

He vn while 

k o( a m 
delicious dish eggs 
pre- 
pared for us, and told 
us many of 

the war with perl 
d-temper, thoi: 
y. 

ie walls and floors of all the rooms were 

mud. Our dinner-table consisted of some 

planks suj on legs. His five younger 

-• od opposite us, their backs squeezed 

;iud wall, staring at us as we ate, with all 

their ten large dark eyes. 

The pointed out the two boys. They 

had fought in a commando, and Henrick— 
■ a shy -faced lad of sixteen, still 
_ a mere child — had shot five English- 
men, had taken two pri and had got 
and braces of one Englishman 
his hand hung as a trophy in the 
ep! We afterwards saw them. 

' childish delight of the old Boer 
> he related this amused even while it sad- 
hut the narration appeared to raise 
and distrust in the minds of " Me- 

vent into the stoep and 

talked together. It was agreed that one of 

i would keep awake all night, taking it in 




Frotn a | 



A RUINE 1) li' Ml 



turns— which, I may add, meant Spotty sleep- 
ing and " Me-Charlie " keeping awake. Each 
carried a loaded revolver in his pocket, and 
these were duly examined. Then, as the night 
was going on apace and we had to start again 
at daylight, I bade the old Boer, his daughter, 
and my companions good-night, and retired to 
my room, the farm, of course, being all on one 
floor. 

The bed looked clean, though rough, and 
Johanna, the girl of eighteen, escorted me to it, 
and showed me, in a simple, guileless manner, 
some field-glasses on the window-sill — which 
opened on to the stoep — which her father had, 
I understood, " taken from Lord Methuen.' ; 
On the brown mud wall was pasted a Bovril 
advertisement of a wounded English officer in 
the arms of a pretty Red Cross nurse, entitled 

" An Angel of Pity," 
the nurse, of course, 
being in the act of 
pouring Bovril down 
the warrior's throat. 

I soon fell asleep, 
strange as were my 
surroundings ; but I 
was worn out with 
the day's trek. 

" Me-Charlie " and 
Spotty lay in the 
stoep on to which 
my window opened. 
I was awakened about 
an hour after by the 
bursting of the storm 
that had been threat- 
ening so long. 
It lasted over an hour, and was truly terrific. 
Thankful were we to be under shelter. The 
two men constantly called out to ask if I had 
been struck, I making the same inquiry of 
them, each of us hardly able to hear the other's 
voices. 

Finally, when the worst seemed over, I once 
more fell asleep. 
But not for long. 

" Me-Charlie " was lying with his eyes half 
shut, about i a.m., when he heard a movement 
in the passage. Without moving he turned his 
eyes, to behold a tall dark figure softly turning 
the handle of my bedroom door ! 

With a yell he started up and pointed his 
pistol at the intruder. 

It was only Johanna, the Boer girl, pale and 
trembling. Might she call me ? Her little 
sister Lisbeth was dying of fits. The English 
lady might know what to do. The poor girl 
was sobbing and crying. I got up at once, put 
on a dressing-gown, and was ushered into a 



\Photo. 



OUR TREK INTO GRIQUALAND. 



271 



crowded bedroom with mud walls, lit by one 
bad candle. The whole family slept in it. It 
was chock-full of beds, out of which the inmates 
had scrambled, and now knelt and stood round 
the poor widowed father, who sat on a chair 
with the child on his knee, insensible, her limbs 
and face undergoing violent contortions. 

Everyone seemed frantic with fright and 




THE FATHER SAT ON A CHAIR WITH THE CHILD ON HIS KNEE 



anxiety, and Johanna sobbed to me in broken 
English that this was her poor dead mother's 
favourite child. 

Meanwhile the father sat and squeezed the 
child's throat, and would certainly have squeezed 
the last breath out of her had I not begged him 
to stop it, loosen her nightdress, and give her 
air. 

It was a hot night, yet every chink was shut ! 

They next fetched cold water, and thrust the 
poor child's feet into it ! I was much struck at 
their utter ignorance of how to deal with illness. 
I recommended a hot bath, and had my work 
cut out getting it ready and running to stop one 
or another member of the family from squeezing 
Lisbeth's throat with all their ten fingers, calling 
piteously to her the while, " Bettee ! Lisbeth ! 
Bettee I " the poor little invalid struggling 
frantically and trying to beat them off. 



"Me-Charlie" also came to the rescue and 
helped light a fire, while the useful Spotty lay 
in the stoep, murmured something about hot 
salt and mustard plasters, and went to sleep 
again. 

I got back to bed about 3 a.m., and at four 
was up again and dressed ready for our trek. 
The little Lisbeth was in a very dangerous 

condition. I felt so sorry 
for them all, and we 
were all ashamed of our 
groundless suspicions of 
the old Boer, who had 
been all that was kind 
and hospitable. 

The sun was now 
rising and it was daylight, 
and one could see how 
lovely the farm was. We 
were far off the track, 
which we could see five 
miles away. On the 
distant ten - mile - away- 
sky-line stood up a white 
patch — the tv hike 1 1 

We stopped at the 
winkel for breakfast. 
The store, a tin hut with 
a whitewashed house of 
mud close by, is kept by 
an Englishman and his 
brother. The elder, who 
owned a nice farm close 
by, was given six hours 
by the British column in 
which to load up a wag- 
gon with his most cher- 
ished belongings, and 
the rest was then set 
fire to. This was as necessary in the case 
of Englishmen as of Boers, and is a reply to 
those who have made an outcry about the 
burning of the farms. 

I cooked our breakfast here in a mud- 
kitchen, in company with a Basuto girl, whose 
face was profusely ornamented with designs in 
blue chalk. The storekeeper said my omelette 
looked so nice that we invited him to share it 
with us, and we all sat down together. 

The lonely storekeeper remarked pathetically, 
" Why doesn't my food ever taste like this ? " 
but I thought I had better not say, " Because 
your Basuto girl stirs it with her finger, sucking 
that member clean each time." Where ignor- 
ance is bliss — don't disturb it. 

Bloemhof. 
This little township suffered heavily during 
the war, and is now a blackened ruin. Not a 



THE WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 



The little church is alone 

turned into the repatria- 

. and pi > a curious spectacle, 

flour and oats ! 
An hospital. I am glad to 
nsecrat 
I mules again here, and continued 
our jour' 

Kareepan. 

er halt, and fresh mules. What a 

s : The day is roasting 

it we had an argument every time I 

ested let the mules 

drink ! I hope in the next lite Spotty will be a 

mule himself, and have to draw a heavy Cape- 

. piled with luggage and four people, 

through a sandy track without a drop of water, 

and on a roasting day. 

How lovely, how vast, how solemn is this 
end dt '. Our army marched all along 

here, and have left grim milestones of the path 
thes ' in thousands of bleaching skeletons 




:hed all along here and have left grim milestones of the path.' : 



of mules, cattle, and now and then a man. By 
■■- alone we know our w 

retary-birds just now— huge 
creatures on tw _ - . ... | hey walk in a 

dignified manixr. and are the of large 

storks. W also seen several antelopes, 



utterly fearless. They stood close to the track 
and watched us pass. Man has no terrors for 
them yet. 

Kromellanboorg Farm (burnt). 
A most picturesque Melrose Abbey sort of 
ruin ; This farm, being a very fine, well-cared- 
for one, was spared burning, until two English- 
men, riding up and seeing a woman's white 
petticoat floating as a " white flag " on the end 
of a long pole, were brutally murdered in cold 
blood on asking for a drink. One dropped 
from his horse, and was then stabbed till he 
died. The other, mortally wounded, implored 
to be spared immediate death, in order to say 
good-bye to his wife and children at Christiana. 
He was left alone, and a convoy passing took 
him to Christiana, where he died the next 
day. 

In consequence of this outrage the farm was 
then burnt and everything round it, and the 
repatriation authorities will probably refuse (and 
rightly) to do anything towards compensating the 

owner. 

Christiana. 
We have stopped 
the night here. It is 
a pretty little veldt 
village, with green 
trees meeting across 
its roads, and deep 
running brooks, six 
feet wide, rippling 
down the sides of 
each street. What 
charming men are 
the repatriation 
officers here ! 

The superintend- 
ent is quite the nicest 
man I have seen on 
the road, and lent 
me his room, his 
camera, his films, his 
books, and, in fact, 
any of his worldly 
goods I liked to 
carry off! 

He begged me in 
the morning to come 
and see his office, 
where the repatria- 
tion work goes on, 
and where Boers of 
crowd all day for 
his office is a small 



both sexes and all ages 
repatriation aid. Next to 
store, bearing on a board the pathetic inscrip- 
tion, "J. Van Z — , Ex-Boer General, and now 
General Agent for tinned provisions." 

I couldn't help smiling. Poor old chap ! 



OUR TREK INTO GRIQUALAND. 



273 



Picture our Lord Roberts or General Buller 
subsiding, after the war, into the selling of 
tinned lobster and Swiss milk ! 

I found the superintendent very angry, and 
with reason. The repatriation superintendents 
require their wits about them, truly, for the 
Boer can be a slippery customer. I need only 
copy an entry I found in his big book — being 
the copy of a letter from an influential burgher, 
himself a member of the repatriation com- 
mission : — 

"To Superintendent, Repatriation, 

" Christiana. 

"Dear Sir,— Mrs. B., of E., is in want of 
food supplies. I am convinced she has no 
money at all, 
being very poor 
and a widow." 

The letter 
went on to re- 
commend her 
for repatriation 
help. Under- 
neath the letter 
the superintend- 
ent had made 
the following 
note : — 

" M a d e in- 
quiries, and 
found the poor 
widow owns 
eight hundred 
morgen of land 
(one thousand 
six hundred 

acres) and will not sell an acre ; and, on help 
being refused, promptly produced one pound 
five shillings out of her pocket to pay for a bag 
of meal at repatriation rates ! " 

We left Christiana early in the morning, and 
are now at the end of our long trek and at one 
of the chief repatriation depots in Griqualand 
West. We are here close to Warrenton, where 
some of the hottest fighting took place, and 
where the magistrate's house was shelled across 
the Vaal River by the Boers until the family 
bolted, after which the Boers used the house as 
their hospital. 

We all went to have tea with them, and very 
kind and hospitable they were. We had tea at 
the dining-room table used by the Boers as 
their operating table ! The walls are full of 
shell and bullet holes. Miss A , the magis- 
trate's daughter, gave me some, photos taken by 
herself of their house on the banks of the Vaal. 

A very interesting little blockhouse I found 
at Christiana had been turned by a cheery old 
Boer into a snug little home while waiting 
Vol. xij.— 35, 













"12- "j^ * ,i *?i. / : j*°i3S$&t 


m 












I i 


1 * 


* 






■ 


\ > 


K&SmI 








■ 




pmsi 












<■■■* 






, 





















Fr 



A LONELY SOLDIEK S GRAVE ON THE VELDT. 



repatriation aid. He has ingeniously spread a 
tent over its top to make it rain-proof, and lives 
in it with his frau, cultivating a pretty little 
garden around it, and drying the biltong, which 
you see hanging in strips to the tin sides of his 
blockhouse home. 

The repatriation here is conducted on an 
extensive scale, and the stores are so vast that 
the superintendent has his work cut out to 
protect them from theft. Kaffir policemen and 
repatriation employes patrol them all night, and 
no one is allowed to approach the stores — which 
are in a barbed wire enclosure on the open 
veldt — without a password. 

The night after I arrived the password was, 

in compliment 
to my arrival, 
the name of my 
last novel — a 
very long sen- 
t e n c e for a 
Kaffir to make 
head or tail of ! 
Several of us 
went for a stroll 
after dinner past 
the stores. 

"Who goes 
zere?" called 
out a half-naked 
individual, pre- 
paring to fell us 
to the earth with 
a bludgeon. 
"The Thin Red 
Line of Heroes!" 
yelled " Me-Charlie," and the constable remarked, 
" Pass on. Olswell," as duly instructed. 

"I'm sure," said I, "they'd let us pass witl 
any word. They can't possibly tell tin 
difference." 

"Try," said the superintendent, with dignity; 
" try, as we return." 

"Who goes zere?" shouted the same man, 
a little later. 

" Eggs and Bacon," was my reply. 
" Pass on," said the highly useful constable. 
" Olswell." 

After that " Me-Charlie" applied to the Kaffir 
dictionary for his password. 

I have been watching repatriation work all 
the morning. It is hard work for all concerned, 
and I venture to say the British Government 
never have had more zeal and energy put into 
any work done for them than in their repatriation 
depots. 

Superintendents' posts in particular are ones 
of vast responsibility, requiring a clear head, a 
kind heart, and yet a stern sense of justice. 



I / 'lioto. 






THE w IDE WOR] 1) MAGAZINE. 







IUTS1DE 1HF. SUPERINTENDENTS RUSH-COVERED HUTS. 



"Branding the cattle" is a very harrowing 
phase of the repatriation work to watch, and it 
a relief after one long roasting afternoon at 
it to see "the repatriation at play,' 1 viz., after- 
noon tea outside the superintendent's pretty 
d huts, designed entirely by himself, 
and com pi- toa bath-room ! 

In ("amp on Vaal River. 
The heat h' 
soterri: I ral 

ion m- 
I up, and I 
felt so ill also that 
- agreed to trek 
pot 
on the Vaal River' 
for a week, from 
whence the men 
could go daily in to 

Cross 

:n for 

iken 
i, and a 

Mr. II 

and I head 

in the early morn- 
ing, with the whole 




J-rom a\ 



convoy behind us, to choose a site and get 
all ready. 

The forest, mainly composed of gigantic 
mimosa trees, now a mass of fluffy yellow 
blossom, grows thick to the water's edge, and 
we had to have the jungle cut away to drag our 
waggons through, a matter of half a day's work. 
Everyone arrived about 5 p.m. on horseback; 

camp fires were soon 
burning a little way 
back in the forest, 
and two English ex- 
soldiers, who under- 
took the cooking, 
were shortly busy 
round them. Kaffirs 
jabbered, ponies 
neighed, mules hee- 
hawed, and a pret- 
tier, homelier scene 
could not be pic- 
tured. 

We had meals under 
the great bucksails 
spread from waggon 
to waggon. The river 
rippled past all day 
and all night with a 
cooling sound. 



N THE VAAL RIVER. 



OUR TREK INTO GRIQUALAND. 



2 75 



A farm on the veldt behind the woods 
supplied us with milk, but the men shot or 
fished for most of our other food. Quite a 
Robinson Crusoe existence ! 

The fighting all along here was at its hottest. 
Almost opposite our camp is the kopje where 
one of the peace treaties was signed. Now, how- 



paradise, or the dusky nights, spangled with 
stars and streaked with silver moonbeams, 
when we paddled up and down the river in our 
boat or raft, and sang coon songs and called to 
each other, it was all a dream of delight. 
Then back to the camp, where the Kaffir 
servants had made a huge fire of trees cut 




"the men shot ok fished for ouk food. 



ever, all is quiet and peaceful ! And but for 
the lonely grave of an occasional soldier, buried 
where he fell, which you come upon unex- 
pectedly in some lovely wild spot, there is 
nothing just here to mark the ravages of war. 

To-morrow ends the repatriation picnic on 
the Vaal River. How lovely it has been ! 
Whether it was the cool African dawn, when, 
as you opened your eyes in one's waggon, 
facing the blue water, you heard the shots of 
the Nimrods upon whom fell the providing of 
the breakfast table — or rather table-cloth — or 
the heat of the long golden day, when we sat in 
the shade and fished, or the evenings, when we 
rode across the veldt to meet the repatriation 
men returning from their labours to this African 



down, and stood round it and sang to us ! Yes ! 
Each bit of each day was lovelier than the last ! 
Many a night in the years to come will 
the eighteen of us who made up this happy 
party recall our waggon camp on the banks 
of the Vaal River ! Many a night in humming 
London, in quiet English villages, in dusty 
African cities, and in many other spots on the 
earth, will not the familiar Kaffir song we 
encored so oiten— the simple performers clap- 
ping themselves as delightedly as we did !— ring 
in our ears ?— 

When the Maxims they go pom-pom, 
And the Englishmen come over the hill ; 

When the big guns go bom-bom — 
The veldt is covered with kill ! 



m 



JtC 



Jirsf u Wireless 



11 



Newspaper. 



H\ E. Leslie Gilliams. 



bout the first newspaper which receives its news by wireless telegraphy. This paper, appropriately 

'.'>. ireless," is established at Avalon, on Santa Catalina Island, off the coast of California, 

v by day a synopsis of the world's news flashed across the ocean from a " wireless " 

station on the mainland. 




X 



I III. I', wireless telegraphy had its 

birtli in Europe and has been i \ 

perimented with, with more or less 

. in England and on the 

ntinent, to the United States 

distinction of producing the first 

dai. ; aper whose general news reports are 

furnished exclusively by wireless telegraph. 

- unique journal is appropriately called 

and is published at Avalon, Santa 

ilina Island, the famous pleasure resort 

which has I I as "an enchanted isle 

a sumnv 

I atalina is the most beautiful island of 

the Santa Barbara group, 

g off the coast 

ithern California. 

Imy climate and 

gnificent situation 

make it a favourite resort 

for many Californians on 

tsure bent. Avalon 

the only town on the 

island, and is a famous 

anglers, who 

mighty tuna, 

1 the gamest fish that 

ns." 

The tuna-fishing alone 

is a great attraction 

apart from the other 

features of the island, 

and Santa Catalina 

asts a plea- 

ilation of five 

d. 

the advent of 
the wireless telegraph 
the island was more or 
from the 
ou - itua- 

ted a distance of three 
and a half hours' run by 
mer from the main- 
land, and the onlv other 

™,««_^ ~r • o |E Alios- 

means of communication From a 




was by boat, and occasionally by carrier-pigeon. 
( able communication there is none. 

Sojourners on the island were thus cut off 
from the rest of the world during the greater 
part of the day, the daily mail and morning 
newspapers from Los Angeles not arriving at 
Avalon until after one o'clock in the afternoon. 
During the morning hours, therefore, no matter 
what was happening, the inhabitants of the 
island had to go news-hungry ; and if they had 
any urgent messages to send to the mainland 
it took the best part of two days to forward 
them and receive the replies, even under the 
most favourable conditions. 

With the steady 
growth of population 
and trade with the main- 
land the need of rapid 
communication began to 
be increasingly felt. The 
enterprising owners of 
the island were contem- 
plating the laying of a 
cable to meet the situa- 
tion, when along came 
an American wireless 
telegraph company and 
satisfied the long - felt 
want at far less expense 
than the laying of a 
cable would have en- 
tailed. Not only this, 
but they supplied a news- 
paper as well, and a 
unique newspaper at that. 
The system of wireless 
telegraphy used is of 
purely American inven- 
tion, distinct from the 
Marconi system and 
claiming to be superior 
to it. The proprietors 
of the telegraph and 
newspaper are pioneers 
in the business of trans- 

CATALINA ISLAND. . • 1 J 

Photo. mitting commercial and 



THE FIRST "WIRELESS" NEWSPAPER. 



277 




From a\ 



THE INTERIOR OF THE NEWS-ROOM OF "THE WIRELESS.' 



{Photo. 



Press messages between permanently established 

stations at a profit. 

The company established its head-quarters in 
Los Angeles in the spring of 1902, and 
immediately began the installation of a wireless 
telegraph station at White's Point, a headland 
on the coast of Los Angeles County, near San 
Pedro. They built another at Avalon, on the 
opposite side of the channel separating Catalina 
Island from the mainland. These stations were 
completed in the course of a few months, and 
proved a complete success in the prompt and 
accurate transmission of messages across thirty- 
three miles of ocean. 

The " line " was opened to the public on 
July 22nd, 1903, and since that time thousands 
of messages have been transmitted in the 
ordinary course of business, without a single 
breakdown or error on the part of the 
apparatus. 

The Western Union wires connect with the 
" wireless " at the White's Point station, and 
thus telegraphic communication is established 
between Santa Catalina Island and the entire 
world. 

The apparatus used by the newspaper com- 
pany resembles in some respects that of Marconi, 
but differs in many details. Each station is 
located on a high point and at an isolated spot, 



so as to avoid all outside noise and electrical 
disturbances. 

A tall mast is erected, from the arm of which 
ten parallel copper wires are strung vertically, 
connecting at the lower end with the receiving 
and sending instruments in a building at the 
foot of the mast. 

At first only one vertical wire was used, but it 
was found, by experimenting, that multiplying 
the wires increased the vibrations or etheric 
waves in proportion, thereby augmenting the 
distinctness of their perception at the receiving 
station. 

The electric energy required for the working 
of the system is supplied by a dynamo operated 
by a small gasoline engine at each station. A 
high voltage is obtained by means of an induc- 
tion coil containing five hundred miles of fine, 
closely-wound wire. 

From this highly-charged coil the electric 
force is discharged by means of an ordinary 
Morse key, the opening and closing of the 
circuits by means of the key causing flashes 
between two copper spheres placed a short 
distance apart, one being a positive and the 
other a negative pole. 

The sharp, crackling sounds produced by 
these flashes are the dots and dashes of the 
Morse code. The instant they are produced 






THE wini WORLD MAGAZINE. 



VOL. i. NO 



SSDED daiiT at Ssntl 
Citiltni. • the Enchanted 
a Summer Sea." 



ISSC 
11 



the masthead, whence 

■ in (.■very direi tionj 

- like the dropping of a pebble 

instrument located on tlu- 
which is keyed to the same tension 
. apparatus and tea duplicate of it 
spends to these subtle waves 
ind the sounds arc reproduced bj a 
ithfully as though the receiving and 
n nts were connected by a eon 
ircuit 
method of sending and of recei\ ing is the 
as that employed in operating 
graph line by the Morse system, the 
onl being that the "back stroke "is 

not used by the "win operator in sending. 

This makes it impossible to send with as 
mil d as by the wired telegraph, but a 

method will soon be perfected 
which the "wireless" can be 
i with as much speed 
the old-fashioned wire. Any 
.;r telegraph operator can 
adapt himself in a few lessons to 
the use of this new American 
ess telegraph system. 
ie successful enterprise in- 
variably begets another. No 
sooner was the wireless telegraph 
in successful operation 

' ilina Island and the 

mainland than one of the leading 

newspapers in California availed 

wireless " wire " to 

Tress despatches from the 

island. 

aper has a large circula- 
tion at Avalon, and there is 
always a great rush for the news- 
steamer arrives 
norning papers about 
lock p.m. 
order to give the people 
Avalon a chance to have the 
. up to them 
at breakfast, the members of the 

impany, of 
whi> .eral Harrison Gray 

teran publisher and 
editor, well known among Ameri- 
can Pressmen, is president and 
general m.. conceived the 

idea of publishing a " wireless " 
daily in Avalon, containing a 
syn< published in 

the .geles morning pa] 

together with the local new 
the island. 



Accordingly a printing outfit was shipped to 
Avalon, and arrangements were speedily com- 
pleted lor' the handling of a special Press report 
every morning. 

The Wireless, which was the name chosen for 
the unique journal, was launched on its career 
a short time ago, and has been coming out 
regularly ever since. It shows every promise of 
having "come to stay." 

( )n the very first night of going to press 
the telegraph service of The Wireless was given 
a severe test. A rain and thunder storm of 
almost unprecedented violence was raging over 
the bay and island. But the report came 
through without interruption or error, and the 
publishers now have no fear that it will ever fail 
them. 

The birth of the first " wireless " newspaper 
was attended with considerable ceremony, and 




ess 




PUBLISHED BY THE LOS ANCELES TIlk.ES. 



3 CENTS 



The OrJy Newspaper In the World Publlsbloa ©ure-enouob L»ispatchefl Transmuted by wireless Telearaph. 



AVALON, MARCH 25, 1903. 



) In tbo Pacific Ocean, off the 
■v Smiitaem California < ■•■' 
I Lai UW°N.. Long. 11WW. 



A FAR CRY FROM THE SEA. 

The Birth of "The Wireless." 
The following telegrams., cross- 
ing THE CHANNEL BY WIRELESS 

telegraph, have passed between 
the office of The. Times in Los 
Angeles ?nd the office of "The 
Wirei.f.ss" (newspaper) in Ava- 
lon. They explain themselves. 

Kb 1 

orr:cz of t/tf time* l« An**].* 

March ». 1901 —MoHm. Mimcr Avalan' 8*. 
coma. (Co-l-'fv.or'l meanin*. "Ttf-'CraD!* what 
progr**a you/arc making. "j OTla. O. M. 

Ke : 
OFFICE ^P "THE WIRET.ESP." AraJon. 
Warrh r ITS — Cm. (Jan. Manacr Ix>« Ange- 
i i/m. /'Am quite rea<J» lo rttrf.") 

Tha rhiW '-Wireles*" * kicking lor the light 
al Car MATHE5. Manager. 

No. 1. 
OrnCE OF THE TIME?. L«a Ant***. 
Kirch K. 1503 -Dr Mathea. "^ th* apot." 
A« a [on L»t th* arcoachrment fw'i 

OTIS. O. M. 
No, *. 
OFFICE OF THK TIMES. Lo* Armies 
March 71. IWl -A 1. Ne-w. General Mjuh-i 
-Hfji Telrgraph Company. Avalon. 
Catoiina Hi and. sanjnua ["Aeotpt '-ur best 
Uuaka."| OTIS, u M. 

No S 
A'.'alOS i-Catatlnai March tt. If! -<J*il. 
Oil*. Lot Anr'le* Arlertvj ( •--■nirraiulale 
yott upon tn- r.appy event J .NKiV Q. M 

Thus is born into the numerous 
family of the world's notable jour- 
nals this unique infant, nowshout- 
jrig lustily on the shores of this Pa- 
cific island resort: "Tell it not in 
Gath, but publish it m a loud tone* 
of voice on the. streets of Avalon,' 



NEWS OF THE MORNING. 

■PPCIAL DISPATCHES DI- 
. > A/ AVA- 

- <■ tkl: KAcmc v/ire 

* H LINE ACROSS 1 IfE 
IUINO ^A-.TA <-,.TAUl.NA 
JSi-A>D rliOM THE MAINLAND I 
Lo* Anrki. 

Los AffCELES, March 25— Tor- 
rential rains here. 

Rain causes worst tie up of 
street car lines in history of city. 

Doom of street fakirs fixed by 
new law and the Governcr im- 
plored not to sign it. 

Huntington friendly to Gar- 
vanza trolley line. 

Eighteen more clerks and thir- 
teen more carriers requested for 
poslofBce. Six thousand dollars 
price on Santa Monica trolley car 
Jobber's heads. Charges made in 



police department decide Super- 
visors to remove County Hospital. 

Deacon Joseph Mims, colored, of 
Long Beach, convicted of grand 
larceny. 

New County Hospital to be built 
of home-sold material. 

C. L. Parker, carpenter, kills 
himself with gas. 

Saatbern California Neva. 

Pasadena rain shuts in Rocke- 
feller. 

Robber murderer believed cap- 
tured in San Bernardino. 

Oxnard labor situation gTave. 

Colton vigilantes drive out ho- 
bos. 

Long Beach invites President. 

Riverside looking for Salt Lake 
•line.. 

Pacific .Slope 

' Lone, highwayman in attempt to 
hold-up Okiah stage kills Messen- 
ger Overmeir. 

Coroner's jury finds-the Stokes 
were murdered. 

Midnight ride with mysterious 
woman cost C. E. Hayes his life. 

Sheridan H- Chipman, Espee 
clerk, killed by Frank J. Gund- 
man. 

General Funston laughs at Di*? 
Parkhurst's remarks. 

Beast assaults insane woman near 
Arcade. 

' left! r il Pailr rn Nf*i 

Mrs Rurdick's testimony throws 
no light on murrler, but shows 
remarkable relations existing 
among all parties to mystery. 

Indiana coal companies re- 
strained from combining. 

New York butler steals jewels 
valued at $2500, 

Rumored merger of Postal and 
Western Union Telegraph and 
Eastern telephone lines 

Miner's strike in Colorado may 
spread. 

Bridge workers out at Pitts- 
burg. 

Burlington and Santa Fe in 
rrerce stnrggle for. mail "contract 

Margon discusses international 



yacht races with Widener and 
others. 

WatHlntrTo*,. 

Spanish government lo sign pro- 
tocol with both countries regula- 
ting Venezuelan claim . 

Three-million dollar issue Phil- 
.ipptne certificates. Wabash rail- 
road working for entrance to cap* 
ital. 

Foreign. 

at lu Los Angeleai 

thence from The Time* . *■ - to vVhtio'a , 

Folnl. San Tedro. thrnc* by Pacific Wlrel*** 
Telegraph, to Avalon J 

Editor Stead denounces the ; 
story that King Edward accepted I 
money from Whittaker Wright. 

Another revolution in Nicara- | 
gua. 

Assembly of Department of I 
Panama urges Canal question on ' 
Colombian congress. 

General Macdonald, command- 
ing British army in Ceylon, ac* . 
cused of immorality. 



t-rril j*t*?h of the world'* n*wa. a* oofflnaal 
hvroir*. win be found In TME T1MP* *Mch 
will arrive #1 Avalon later today. 



SECOND EDITION. 



11:30 O'CLOCK A. M. MARCH 33, 1903 



The following wireless messages. 
which also explain tbenuelres, w«r« 

'■V' harir;'-! between the signers about 
the middle of the forenoon today: 

No. 4 

OFFICE OF "THE WIRPLE9S.',' Avalon. 
-..'. ti. ittl. )• 10 a ..-u otlo. "Lbe An- 

■*!«■: "Wlreleaa" on the atseet. PoprilAro 
rviid with curiotlty and ri"tetr»*oL Bend ra >ra 
tfpe, mora meohiaery. mora men. Preparing 
•econd -•!■!,, g. j BfATffCS. Mi 

No 7 

OITICB OT THE TTMES. Majrh IS IMJ. 
lilt a. m — Math**, onire or the wlaard-HW* 
•Wirelew." Avalon; Calm yourself, raj- doc- 
(or. and roateT .'.- luiiy lnfajit_ Materia la 
tor eipamllnf Mm will be ahlpprd today. ' Oon- 
■ ratulatlona on thla notable event In th* broad 
domain et mod.*™ human achievement. 

OTIS; O. H. 
NO. I. 

AVALON <C«J.» March B. ItOt. ION a.m - 

Gen OUa. Manager Tlmra. l*i Anfrlaa "Tbo 

wirtl«ta" made great hit. Again I congritg. 

lata you. a. L. NEW. 

»o >, 

OFFICE OP T^E^ TTMES Ma.M».-U 1M1 
U li a-m-G^h. A. u .Ve*. Ar»l«, Tb^ 
yon The congr«fu1ati«na ar* mutual. Tow 
have don* a great thing. OTJS. Q. M 



FACSIMILE OF 'IMF-. IKON) i'A(,K OK THE FIRST ISSUE OF " THE WIRELESS. 



THE FIRST "WIRELESS" NEWSPAPER. 



279 



was the occasion of the interchange of many 
congratulatory messages between Avalon and 
the places with which it was connected by wire- 
less telegraph. 

In the " foreword " to the first number the 
editor points with pardonable pride to the fact 
that The Wireless is "the first-born progeny 
of the greatest of all the 
achievements of electrical 
enterprise — telegraphy with- 
out wires in daily letterpress." 
Another writer bursts into 
poetry: — 

Flash the news to Avalon — 
News of wreck and flood and fire, 
News of battles dread and dire, 
News that strenuous times re- 
quire, 
Good and bad news, flashed 

entire, 
Without cables, without wire — 
Flash the news to Avalon. 

Flash the news to Avalon — 

Read the news of frauds and 

shams, 
Price of wheat and wool and 

hams, 
Flooding rivers, bursting dams, 
The lion's roar, the bleat of 

lambs ; 
All the latest wirelessgrams — 
Flash the news to Avalon. 

The demand for this first 

edition — a facsimile of the first 

we have reproduced - - was so 




MR. W. G. SENER, THE CHIKF OPERATOR AT THE 
MAINLAND STATION. 

Photo, by The Pinero Studio, Philadelphia. 



page of which 
great that an 
additional thousand were ordered and printed 
within thirty minutes after the first thousand 
left the press. 

As much as a dollar was 
offered for single copies when 
the second edition was ex- 
hausted. 

Since then many extra 
thousands of the initial 
number have been run off, 
and it is almost impossible 
to meet the demand for the 
subsequent editions. 

The Wireless was started 
as a three-column folio, the 
size of the pages being eight 
by eleven inches. At the 
beginning of the second 
week it was increased to a 
four-column sheet. 

The staff of the new daily 
was soon made up, the re- 
sident correspondent of one 
of the California papers, Mr. 
S. J. Mathes, serving as first 
editor. But the work of 
conducting The Wireless soon 




MR. C. E. HOWELL, ONE OF THE EDITORS OF THE 
WIRELESS" — HE RECEIVES THE MESSAGES 

From a] at santa catalina. [Photo. 



proved too much for him alone, and several 
other gentlemen were speedily added to the staff. 
Mr. C. E. Howell is the magician who 
conjures the " wireless " messages from the skies 
every morning at early dawn, and " Wireless 
Joe," the first " wireless " messenger boy on 
earth, is the lad who carries the messages from 
the wizard eye on the heights 
overlooking the beautiful har- 
bour of Avalon down to the 
office of The Wireless, a new 
building specially constructed 
on Metropole Avenue. 

The equipment of The 
Wireless, like its staff, is as yet 
rather meagre, but is being 
rapidly enlarged and im- 
proved. The paper is printed 
on a half medium job press. 

The telegraphic report of 
The Wireless consists of six 
hundred to eight hundred 
words, comprising a digest of 
the leading news of the day 
from all parts of the world, as 
appearing in the California 
papers of the same date. 

This news summary gives 
the readers of The Wireless 
an inkling of what is going on 
in the great busy world, and serves as an appeti- 
zer for the fuller reports contained in the ordinary 
daily papers which they receive later in the day. 
In addition to the telegraphic feature The 
Wireless also contains a brief 
record of the local happenings 
on the island from day to day, 
including storiesof marvellous 
catches by the anglers ; the 
adventures of the wild goat- 
hunters ; reports of golf and 
tennis games and other sport- 
ing and social events ; lists of 
arrivals at the hotels ; talks 
with travellers, and a great 
variety of interesting informa- 
tion for tourists and others, 
with pithy editorial com- 
ments. 

Thus a large demand for 
copies of The Wireless is 
created by persons who want 
to let their friends see how 
important they are and what 
they are doing on "the en- 
chanted isle set in a summer 
sea." Without a doubt The 
Wireless is the most unique 
newspaper in the world. 




By Ras. im s. Magnussen, of Broken Hill, N.S.W. 

■. months ago Broken Hill, in New South Wales, a city of nearly thirty thousand people, was stncken 

tstrous water famine. Mines were shut down, and formerly prosperous people had to accept 

I relief. The local authorities were inundated with letters from people who — for a consideration 

— offered to " make rain." One or two of these offers were accepted, with the results set forth in this article. 




R.OK.EN HILL, in New South 

W'a phically, but literally 

in the centre of Australia, near the 

States, has recently 

i a novel experience — novel in 

■rrible in another. 

In June of 190,5 the local water supply ran 

out. What this means to a town of twenty-six 

thousand to thirty thousand inhabitants can be 



is connected with civilization by a narrow-gauge 
railway which ends at Adelaide, the capital oi 
the adjacent State. Its water supply is pro- 
vided by a private company, which years ago 
placed a dam across the bed of a creek 
which possibly carries water half-a-dozen 
times a year. When full the reservoir thus 
created is a magnificent sheet of water, 
but one result of the drought which has cursed 







SILVER, LEAD, AND ZINC MINES 
rld's ANNUAL OUTPUT. 



WHICH PRODUCE ONE-EIGHTH OK THE 

{Brokenshire. 



than described. Broken 

H ' ! - and its existence 

h silver, lead, and zinc mines — 

wni ne-eighth of the world's total 

situated in the centre of an 

It has no other town near it, and 



the interior of Australia for several years past 
has been that more water has been required from 
the reservoir than has run in. Although the 
greater part of the country was blessed with 
magnificent rains in 1903, Broken Hill did not 
share in Nature's bounty. In 1902, for the full 



RAIN -MAKING AT BROKEN HILL. 



281 



twelve months, only 3"45in. of rainfall was 
registered in the town. For the first six months 
of IQ03 the fall was 3'55in. — seven inches in 
eighteen months ! 

For eighteen months the fact that the town's 
water supply was in a bad way had been gradually 
borne in upon the inhabitants, and an energetic 
agitation proceeded in -favour of the Govern- 
ment assisting the people by the construction of 



position became so dangeious, that the "rain- 
maker " was communicated with and informed 
that his terms were too high — even though three 
inches of rain meant to Broken Hill the differ- 
ence between ruin and prosperity. He was told, 
however, that if he could undertake the task for 
a lower figure a bargain might be completed. 
He promptly reduced his five thousand pounds 
to two thousand five hundred. 




From a] 



THE STEPHENS CREEK RESERVOIR, ON WHICH BROKEN HILL DEPENDS FOR ITS WATER SUPPLY. 



[Photo. 



another dam across another creek, in which to 
store up water for the expected shortage. But 
the Government hesitated, and nothing was 
undertaken until it was too late. As the water 
receded in the Stephens Creek reservoir its 
normal rate of consumption and evaporation 
increased, and one morning in June, when 
people awoke and proceeded to prepare for 
bath and breakfast, they found that the water 
had been cut off. By the afternoon several of 
the mines had been closed down ; by the follow- 
ing morning all were idle, and Broken Hill found 
itself with its sole reason for existence sus- 
pended, and about five thousand men suddenly 
thrown out of work. 

That, if rain did not fall, some such situation 
would have to be faced had long been foreseen, 
and when, a few weeks previously, the agitation 
that the Government should come to the aid of 
the town became acute, a doctor of medicine, Dr. 
C. de Lacy MacCarthy, of Melbourne, tele- 
graphed to the mayor offering to provide three 
inches of rain for Broken Hill for five thousand 
pounds — " no rain, no pay." The offer 
was taken as a huge joke, and was laughed 
at from end to end of Australia. But events 
followed one another so quickly, and the 

Vol. xii.— 36. 



This was Broken Hill's first experience of 
rain-making — in recent years, at any rate. In 
its early days it also had a proposal, but that 
does not count. 

No sooner had the fact been printed in the 
city newspapers that Broken Hill was taking 
Dr. MacCarthy seriously than the town began 
to be bombarded with offers from rival " rain- 
makers." Where these " rain-makers " came 
from and where they were hidden during the 
years of the great drought are still mysteries. 
The mayor, the chamber of commerce, and 
the local newspapers were inundated with pro- 
posals and suggestions, in which explosive 
chemicals, balloons, kites, cannon, and prayer 
all played a part. Several persons in far-distant 
parts offered to pray for Broken Hill. But all, 
men and women alike, with one exception, 
asked for payment — even those who offered 
their prayers. 

Day after day tantalizing clouds passed over- 
head, which condition of affairs led the mayor, 
when offered by telegraph the " very latest 
American cloud-breaking kite, with full gear," 
for five pounds, to wire back instantly, over a 
distance of about one thousand miles, " Send 
kite at once." The kite arrived by express 






nil' WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 




THE IVOXDERI'UI. CLOUD-BREAKING KITE 



\riioto. 



train (freight two pounds), and so did a sight 

draft for the five pounds. The "cloud-breaking" 

kite proved to be merely an extra-large American 

box-kite, priced in the United States at six 

shillings, and the " gear " consisted of a ball of 

To mention kites to the mayor (a 

Scotsman) in the troublous days that followed 

to invoke a fierce vocabulary of strange 

lie oaths. 

,e "rain-making" proposal, the one for 
which the man who made the offer generously 
asked no payment, bore the stamp of sincerity. 
It was referred to several local chemists, who 
agreed that the scheme suggested seemed fairly 
The proposer stated that a mixture of 
sulphuric acid, zinc, and water, in certain speci- 
fied proportions, and mixed in open pots, would 
form spiral column lour which, penetrating 

into the higher atmosphere, would create a 
disturbance and produce the much-needed rain, 
nmittee of experts was appointed to 
experiment on these lines. The committee 
consisted of a doctor, a chemist, the resident 
ma> the technical college, a leading 

\ and the head of the electric light 
periments lasted a week, but no 
rain fell — no rain worthy the name, that is ; 
though it was certainly a coincidence that 
folic - n each separate experiment a light 



shower descended. But the committee was not 
vain enough to claim these showers. In fact, it 
is not particularly proud of having touched what 
it is now inclined to regard as charlatanry. 

The mayor, although Dr. MacCarthy first 
communicated with him, was not disposed to 
deal with the professional " rain-maker," so it 
was left to the chamber of commerce to carry 
on the negotiations, which, pending the local 
experiments, had been allowed to remain in 
abeyance. The chamber sought to get the 
mining companies and the water corporation to 
guarantee a portion of the two thousand five 
hundred pounds the doctor asked for, but the 
latter only would join in the project. Further 
letters and telegrams were exchanged, the out- 
come being that Dr. MacCarthy consented to 
produce the rain for one hundred pounds pre- 
liminary expenses — cash down — and a guarantee 
of live hundred pounds if the promised down- 
pour eventuated. The one hundred pounds 
were collected in the town by public subscription 
in a couple of hours. 

For a time after the completion of the 
negotiations the eyes of all Australia were 
centred on Broken Hill. Dr. MacCarthy, 
interviewed in Melbourne, expressed himself 
confident of success. He had, he said, brought 
the rain in Japan and at a couple of places in 



RAIN -MAKING AT BROKEN HI LI.. 



2*3 



Victoria, and would not hear of failure. He 
and several assistants left Melbourne on a 
Friday, arrived in Adelaide on Saturday, and 
travelled to Broken Hill by a special train pro- 
vided by the South Australian Government, 
reaching the silver field about eight o'clock on 
Sunday morning. The warmth of his reception 
would have delighted any world-famed hero. 
During the Sunday and Monday he had but to 
appear on the balcony of his hotel or in the 
street to attract a crowd which in its pleasure 
would now and again give vent to its feelings in 
a cheer. 

Active operations started on the Tuesday, and 



Certainly, while the " rain-maker " and his 
staff were at work very promising clouds con- 
tinually hung over the watershed, often when 
the town, nine miles away, was domed by a 
clear blue sky. But the rain refused to fall. 
Altogether, in four weeks, one solitary point 
was registered, even though at times the 
clouds hung so low that they seemed to 
actually press down on the town The 
nights were exceedingly frosty and bitterly 
cold ; one day there happened along a fierce 
dust storm — the Barrier challenges the Sahara 
in the matter of dust storms ; and the daily 
shade temperatures (maximum) ranged between 




From i 



THE LOCAL " RAIN-MAKING " COMMITTEE AT WORK. 



[Pho/O. 



with one break were continued for nine days. 
Yet Nature remained perverse. The " rain- 
maker " setup three "stations" on the catch- 
ment of the reservoir, at the three points of a 
triangle, each "station" being five miles apart. 
These " stations " were canvas-walled enclosures, 
ten feet in length, breadth, and height, open at the 
top. No one except the " rain-maker " and his 
assistants was allowed inside, so what magic was 
performed the outside world does not know. The 
doctor absolutely refused to give a hint of its 
formula, admitting only to his use of certain 
chemicals creating a vapour, which rising high, 
miles into the atmosphere, produced a vacuum. 
This vacuum was to attract the clouds, which 
would then burst. But they didn't, to the 
disgust of Broken Hill and the apparent dis- 
appointment of Dr. MacCarthy. 



fifty - two degrees and seventy - six degrees. 
Through this varying weather Dr. MacCarthy 
stuck to his task, telling all who saw him (and 
many men drove out the few miles between the 
town and the catchment just to chat with him) 
that he couldn't possibly fail. "To-morrow" 
or " Two days hence " —to all he gave one of 
these two replies. Once during the nine days 
of experiment he journeyed into town for a 
short rest. Interviewed, he reiterated every- 
thing he had said before he entered on his task. 
He was, he said, "doing nicely, thank you"; 
everything was proceeding satisfactorily : he was 
more sanguine than ever. 

But the* rain held off, and one evening about 
seven o'clock there stumbled into Broken Hill 
a footsore, dejected, jaded man. It was 
MacCarthy. Weary and disgusted at his con- 



28 4 



THE WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 



tinned dismal failure he had suddenly " thrown 
up the sponge," and, no vehicle being available, 
he had set out to walk the nine miles inter- 
ween the dry watercourse and the 
town. 

As soon as he had had dinner the "rain- 
maker " went to bed, and stayed there for 
■i hours. 

A couple of days later, when he had recu- 
sed, the doctor took the train back to 
Melbourne, still assertive, still hopeful, blaming 
Nature- the frost and the dust— for his non- 
success. ro the last he refused to admit that 
his scheme was at fault. He agreed that he 
had failed- to deny that would have been utter 
stupidity — but put all the blame on the unusual 
climal nditions he had had to face. Certainly 
broken Hill is strong on weather. It some- 
times has ten to twelve varieties a day, and I've 
known the temperature to drop sixty degrees 
within twelve hours, and that more than once. 



thousand gallons of water from the adjacent 
State, over a distance of from one hundred to 
one hundred and seventy miles. Some of the 
mines buckled to also and erected condensing 
plants, so that the highly-mineralized water in 
the workings might be utilized. 

Meantime, about three thousand men were 
out of work and over two thousand only work- 
ing " short time," while no fewer than three 
thousand six hundred people had registered to 
receive Government relief. The street trams 
ceased running, the supply of gas and electric 
light was reduced about a half, business places 
were " sacking " hands right and left, and even 
some of the hotels closed their bars. Strikes 
and accidents are bad — Broken Hill has experi- 
enced both— but a water famine is deadly. 
Never before has Broken Hill been in such dire 
straits. 

If Dr. MacCarthy had only succeeded, what a 
tremendous amount of distress would have been 




iCCARTHV AND ONE OK HIS STATIONS. 



[Photo. 



Dr. MacCarthy left the railway station the 
Broken Hill people bade a long farewell to 
artificial rain-making, and set their minds to the 
task of grappling with the situation by ordinary 
methods. A Minister of the Crown visited the 
town, journeying a thousand miles to do so, 
and certain proposals were placed before him. 
The result was that arrangements were made 
for the carriage by train weekly of eight hundred 



averted ! As it is, Broken Hill has had to return 
to its faith in Dame Nature and await the good 
lady's consideration. Its experience may prove 
a valuable lesson, in that once the present 
difficulty is overcome the people will see to it 
that it has no chance of repetition. And, at any 
rate, the experience of the town has placed 
" rain-maker " stock at a discount on the 
Australian market. 




By J. Walter 



Rl£LT>, 

I. 



of Pennsylvania. 



^» F.R.Hors!rwn* 



t 



There formerly existed in the Southern States of America a number of powerful secret societies, 
which, under such names as the " Ku Klux Klan " and "White Avengers," caused a veritable reign 
of terror throughout the regions wherein they operated. Everything possible was done to play 
upon the superstitious fears of the population, and deeds of fiendish cruelty and cold-blooded ferocity 
were wrought under cover of darkness. This story describes the thrilling experiences of a young 
school-teacher who incurred the enmity of one of these terrible organizations. 




P£^ 



H E adventures herein narrated 
occurred more than thirty years 
ago ; they comprise the thrilling 
experiences of a young Northern 
man who, at the close of the great 
Civil strife in the United States, went into the 
Southland to " teach school " among the newly- 
freed slaves. 
_ The feeling of the Southrons toward the 
victorious Yanks at the time was the very 
natural one of deep enmity. To-day this 
feeling has worn itself completely out, and in 
its stead there is a sentiment of firm friendship ; 
the two " sections " of old are now a united 
people. There is to-day in America no North 
and no South, except in a strict geographical 
sense. 

The adventures I shall relate arose directly 
from the manoeuvres of certain bands of lawless 
individuals who sprang into being at the close 
of the war. They were the riff-raff, the scum of 
the Southern forces — that class of men who inflict 
themselves upon all great armies; and the 
sudden cessation of hostilities threw them out of 
a job. Various terror-inspiring cognomens were 



assumed by these lawless societies, the one most 
widespread in notoriety being the " Ku Klux 
Klan," or " K. K. K." The particular band, 
however, whose bloodthirsty deeds are dealt 
with in part in this narrative was known through- 
out a small area of South-Western Alabama as 
the "White Avengers." Their avowed purpose 
was to rid the earth of " nigger sympathizers,' 
stray Yankees, and weak-kneed ex-rebels who 
were too ready in yielding renewed allegiance to 
the Government — and, in fact, to weed out any 
and every one less rabidly bitter than themselves 
at the outcome of the war. As a matter of fact, 
however, this rabble was as great a menace to the 
representative Southern folk themselves, pros- 
trate as they were from the recent deplorable 
strife, and too weak to eject these alleged 
"avengers" from their lands. Vengeance 
doubtless inspired some fiery spirits among 
these secret bands ; pure wantonness, love of 
rapine, and a wild life inspired more. Every 
nation oh the earth has the material in its 
midst for just such societies. When circum- 
stances ripen the occasion, as in this Southern 
United States case, they spring into life. History 






rill WIDE WORLD M.U'.AXINE. 



is full of the deeds actly similar bands of 

free . from the brigands of Italy to the 

" \\ hit cap] s and New York. 

The " Ku Klnx Klan" and the "White 
ed upon the circumstances to a 
mask, under the guise of extreme 
S uh. deeds o\ sheer cruelty. 
I by innate bloodthirstiness. 
There was, of course, a strong sentiment, 
in the part of the Southron 
nst the Northern man at the close of the 
war. Coupled with this, the Southern folk 
rjy prejudiced against any act tending 
to lift the n to a social status higher than 

as, Mr instance, by educating them. 
The young man I speak of, therefore, being 
' only a Northerner but about to engage in 
educating the negroes, was doubly under the 
oan of Southern ostracism. 

The story here told is an outline of what 
! him in this work, as witnessed and partici- 
pated in by my own lather, then a young man. 

The self-elected pioneer of education was 
Horace E. Johnson. He was a stranger to fear, 
and earned later the distinctive sobriquet of 
'The Fighting Yankee School-Teacher." He 
knew to some extent before leaving Penn- 
inia what he would have to encounter 
socially in the South, but the methods pursued 
toward so-called "Yankee interlopers" by the 
' White Av and similar associations In- 

had to a great extent yet to learn. 

The first stop young 
Johnson made in his jour- 
south was in the Ala- 
bama ci: ; lma. Here 
he was to be met by a 
ured man with a team 
of horses and to be driven 
ce thirty - eight miles 
into the country, where hi , 

found his colour..'; 
driver at an agreed 

ous toward night — 
catch a darky leaving town 
till the last moment !— and 
began his long , trip. 

which was to be br 

•n miles out at a way- 
ry. 
The first instalment of 
that dr: remem- 

"terwards as an en- 
trancing dream. 
- Khern twilights are long. 
t fields of bur 
white cotton, the grovi 
magnolia, gum, and live-oak, 



alive with strange, gaily-plumaged birds, the per- 
fume .laden air, were all strangely fascinating to 
him. But now the scene shifted rapidly. The 
young teacher's " experiences " were to begin 
that very night. 

Arrived at the country hotel, a sort of wayside 
inn of a past age, Horace entered, and while 
the driver was looking after the team he re- 
quested supper and a night's lodging for himself 
and the darky. 

Now, even the Northern American has certain 
social objections to the man of colour. For 
instance, as a rule he would not think of sitting 
down to dinner at the same table as a black 
man. Horace did think, however, that it was 
within the proprieties to eat in the same room 
— particularly in this backwoods hostelry. But 
he was to learn his mistake. In the South the 
negro must take his meals in a room by him- 
self; on the cars he must confine himself to 
the negro compartment ; and this law applies 
to every human being with one single drop of 
negro blood in his veins. 

" The driver and I are nearly famished," said 
the young Northerner amicably to the heavy- 
browed Southern host. "Let enough food be 
brought into the dining-room to satisfy two 
healthy appetites." 

" Meanin' that nigger, I reckon, to eat in 
where the white folks eat?" queried the amazed 
proprietor, doubting the evidence of his ears 



*& 



w 




^ 





IN THAT NIGGER, I RECKON?' QUERIED THE AMAZED PROPRIETOR." 



THE "WHITE AVENGERS." 



287 



"Why, yes, certainly," replied the Northerner, 
somewhat sharply. "Black folks have to eat 
down here, don't they, same as the white 
people ? " 

Then the crowd of disreputable-looking, long- 
haired loungers about the dingy hotel " office," 
who had been eyeing Horace askance, broke 
into a sneering guffaw of laughter, casting upon 
the stranger at the same moment marked scowls 
of disapproval. 

" You're a Yank ! " said the Boniface, con- 
clusively, after a slow scrutiny of his prospective 
guest's face lasting some seconds. Then he 
glanced expressively toward the grim visages in 
the background. 

The effect of the landlord's deduction upon 
these latter individuals was electrical. As one 
man they rose to their feet, a low murmur 
running about the smoke-laden room, and 
clanking their heavily-spurred boots as they 
came, they advanced menacingly toward the low 
hotel desk where the guest stood. 

The most villainous-looking member of the 
crowd paused directly in front of young 
Johnson. 

" Be ye a nigger-lovin' Yank, young fellow ? " 
he asked, insolently, at the same moment 
drawing a monstrous saddle - pistol from an 
open holster or leather pocket at his side, and 
fanning the air in front of the lad carelessly 
with the weapon to give emphasis to his talk. 
"'Cause if ye be," he continued, "ye want to 
make a right smart move back up to Vermont 
and get busy a-making wooden nutmegs an' 
such-all things. That's you-alls line, 'stead of 
comin' down here into we-alls country to put 
fool ideas into the heads of our niggers. Do ye 
understand that ? Be I right, fellows ? " and 
the burly ruffian turned inquiringly to the 
other occupants of the room, still, toying care- 
lessly with the pistol. 

A loud shout, mingled with much profanity, 
left no doubt in the young man's mind, had he 
originally possessed any, that this sentiment met 
the unanimous approbation of everyone present 
—save himself. With this vocal endorsement 
of their leader the crowd coupled action and 
closed about the surprised Yank. 

" Gentlemen," said the object of their dis- 
pleasure, composedly, " I came down here into 
your country to teach school, and not to have 
trouble. I " 

" Who-alls you goin' to teach, then ? " broke 
in a voice from the crowd, in that same drawling 
dialect of the first speaker. 

The awful enormity of young Johnson's 
daring had not even then occurred to his inter- 
locutors. They supposed now that, at worst, 
he was simply an interloping " carpet - bagger " 



seeking to open a " boarding-around " school of 
white patrons, though even these schools were 
then rare in the South. Among wealthy white 
people the " tutor " system was prevalent ; the 
"poor whites " went mostly untaught. 

" I expect, gentlemen, to teach the coloured 
children — over beyond Greensboro, in Hale 
County. I " 

" You — expect to — what did he-alls say, 
fellows ? " gasped the individual who had first 
questioned Johnson, turning to the audience to 
corroborate words so atrocious of import that 
he doubted them. 

" Why, I'm eternally blessed ! " he went on 
in a breath, "if we-alls ain't caught a nigger- 
teachin' white Yank ! Got th' nerve to tell 
we-uns right to our teeth what he-alls aimin' to 
do, too ! 

" Does y'alls hear that ? Now, here's my own 
answer," he added, and struck the unsuspect- 
ing young Northerner several vicious blows in 
the face with his clenched fist. 

" Fellows," he cried out, in a sudden access 
of fury as Horace Johnson unexpectedly struck 
back one strong, muscular blow in the big 
brute's face, completely closing that worthy's 
right eye, " snatch open that door there ! No 
scrub of a Yank shall strike Dink Botsford and 
live long enough to spread the rumour ! " Then 
a dozen brawny roughs seized hold of the 
school-teacher and, jostling and kicking him 
as they went, rushed him swiftly through the 
opened door. From outside a score of 
frightened darkies scurried pell-mell, having 
been congregated there in the dark, tremblingly 
listening. 

Once outside the building, a running start 
was made forthwith for a neighbouring live-oak 
possessed of a convenient lower limb ; the 
young Northerner making frantic efforts the 
while to free himself. Then a queer incident 
occurred. The stalwart form of a young man 
whom no one had, previously observed suddenly 
sprang from the shadows. Uttering no word, 
he made his way by force into the middle of 
the ruffianly throng, its members going to earth 
in a struggling heap before the powerful sweeps 
of his arms. Then he called out somewhat 
breathlessly to Horace to follow him, and 
disappeared at a bound as unexpectedly as 
he had come, the astounded but grateful 
Northern lad a good second. The discomfited 
mob at the oak tree seemed paralyzed with 
amazement. 

Over fences, meadows, and pastures the 
fleeing pair plunged ahead through the 
dark", pausing for nothing, while close behind, 
soon after crossing the first meadow, they could 
plainly hear their incensed and bloodthirsty 






THE WIDK WORLD MAGAZINE. 




"THI-V RUSHED HIM SWIFTLY IHKOI-i;H THE OPENED HOOR.' 



pursuers. Glancing back as they ran, the lads 
saw the shadowy outlined forms of the enraged 
mob, seemingly gaining on them. Twice, three 
times, they felt the close " zip " of bullets sent 
to stop them. 

Suddenly the stalwart stranger swerved to 
one side to leap a small stream, grasping his 
companion by the arm and bidding him breath- 

-ly to jump. Then, still guided by the 
stranger, Johnson entered a heavily-timbered 
swamp. A safe distance within its depths the 
panting pair sat down upon a fallen log to rest ; 
and then for the first time Horace learned 
something of his benefactor. For the time 
their surroundings would give them ample pro- 
tection ; though the school - teacher chafed at 
this one-sided encounter, and the fact that he 
was hiding from an enemy. 

The stranger, Johnson learnt, was the son of 
a neighbouring planter. One of the coloured 
boys who " belonged " to the plantation had 
brought him word that a gang of " Kluckers " 
had the young Northerner surrounded, and it 
needed no telling in that troublous period what 
the outcome would be. A Southron himself, 
with all a Southern man's prejudices, the 
young planter had none the less acted as any 
true Southern gentleman would have acted, 



and at the peril of his own life instantly rushed 
to the rescue. 

I must pause here to state that this young 
Southern planter, later on in life, displayed the 
good taste to become the male parent of the 
writer of this narrative. 

Seated there in that black swamp, the planter's 
son explained to his companion all the cruel 
methods and deeds of bloodshed which em- 
ployed the night-time of these bands of so-called 
" Avengers." The very mob from which young 
Johnson had been rescued comprised the most 
dangerous characters of all the merciless night- 
riding guerillas in the whole South. 

The Northern lad learned in detail many of 
their atrocious barbarities and the unspeakable 
cruelties practised by them upon their victims, 
ot which hanging was a mere merciful surcease 
from suffering. 

The pair had but the briefest time, however, 
for regaining their breath ; deadly dangers were 
approaching them even then — dangers which 
would demand every effort they were capable of. 

The young planter's plan of escape, hastily 
formed, was that they should secrete themselves 
in the labyrinths of the swamp until opportunity 
should come for them to escape unobserved, 
and then make their way cautiously to his 



THE "WHITE AVENGERS." 



289 



home, two miles distant. From here, later on, 
the young teacher could safely proceed on his 
way. 

Suddenly the late moon threw its first broad 
beam through the fringe of trees separating the 
two young men from the open fields ahead. At 
that same instant a peculiar and indescribable 
sound, proceeding from somewhere on the edge 
of the swamp, fell upon their straining ears — 
a sound which the Northern man had never 
before heard, but concern- 
ing which the young 
Southron needed no ex- 
planation. It was an 
extraordinarily hollow and 
uncanny clucking, almost 
like the death-rattle of a 
dying man. It was the 
gruesome battle-cry of 
the " Ku Klux Klan," 
especially devised by them 
for its fearsomeness — a 
sound which had caused 
the laces of many a 
wretched victim, both 
black and white, to 
blanch, and their hearts 
to stop beating from 
sheer terror. 

Glancing quickly to- 
ward the outer edge of 



We felt there that night in the swamp much 
as the treed opossum does when surrounded 
by the hounds. It was fight, swim, or die — 
possibly and die. Two young lads against a 
horde of murderers ! We had some little variety 
in our choice of death, and that was all. We 
were poorly armed for such an unequal contest, 
but we seemed thus far to be well hidden, 
having snugged down behind two giant water- 
oaks, and so we waited anxiously. 



the swamp, whence this 

awful 

come, 



to 



fugitives 



sound seemed 

the two 
now beheld two score 
dreadful, white-shrouded 
forms, which seemed to 
have sprung out of the 
earth, scattered through 
the heavily- foliaged 
Southern swamp trees. 
With a thrill of horror 
the young planter recog- 
nised in them the mur- 
derous " White Aven- 
gers" in their full "uni- 
form " of long white robe 
and peaked pillow-case 
head gear, in which holes 
were slit for the eyes. 
Across the breast of the 
robe was a black death's 
head, skull, and cross- 
bones complete— all factors for inspiring terror. 
It was evident that the scoundrels at the 
"hotel" had called out their full regiment; 
there was foul work ahead for them this still 
night. From this point I may as well continue 
the story in my father's own words : — 

Vol. xii. — 37. 




"the young planter recognised in them the 
murderous ' white avengers.'" 



B Then, all at once, there came a lurid glare, 

gradually growing in size and intensity until 
the whole edge of the wood seemed ablaze. Our 
hearts nearly stood still as we realized the awful 
import of this spectacle. We were to be 
smoked out of cover, or, rather, driven out by 
the fierce heat of the forest fire the fiends 
behind had started! The "fat" pines, dry as 






rHE WIDE WORLD MAOAZINE. 



tind ve the high-water mark oi the swamp, 

with inflammable resin, and the 

withered tr< med and matted in a 

ve our heau>, formed a quick 

id tlic • ration. 

Driven out of our hiding-place, we plunged 

vamp. That way there was a 

lif< . toward the fiends in human 

site direction no chance at all. 

ile the clucking demons watched, ex- 

ry moment us leap into sight 

n of (lames. But we were grimly 

rmined to disappoint the uncanny horde, 

and disappoint them we did. 

lathsome swamp snakes dropped 

rendered blind by the flames, and 

furry r> idded past us in terror. Screech- 

- wild felines, the Southern ti_ i cats, going 

in great bounds from one fallen tree-trunk to 

anothci. fresh danger to our surround- 

_ . shagg) black b< ar arose on 

his haunches in our path to dispute our further 

;s— an unconscious ally of the wilder 

beasts in human form who were even then 

king our lives. 

: iddenly we sank knee-deep in a bog, the 

roaring cauldron of flames sweeping toward us 

like a cyclone. It parched and blistered our 

tmosphere turned blood red. 

Involuntarily we closed our eyes, and I must 

admit I gave up all hope. We could hear the 



voices of the " Kluckers " away behind, now 
interspersing hoarse shouts with their awful 
death clucks — 1 know not what else to call the 
sounds. 

Suddenly— a fancy we concluded — we thought 
there were human voices in front of us. We 
had begun to sink deeper into the quagmire, 
each wild plunge sending us farther and farther 
down into the inky slime. 

Then once again in our frenzy we thought 
there were cries from in front. A moment 
more, and this fancy proved a happy reality. 

The gigantic frames of two powerful black 
men burst suddenly into view in the dark back- 
ground, seeming to our distracted vision like 
beings from the nether world. The onrushing 
conflagration cast a yellow glow on the black 
swamp walls behind them, lighting the negroes' 
faces with the pallor of corpses ; and the flicker- 
ing flames gave them demon motions and the 
stature of giants. 

They were not demons, however, but our 
rescuers. 

In their hands the black men bore long poles 
with which they had been engaged in knocking 
over the little animals, the swarms of 'possums 
and the like, which were driven out of their 
swamp nests by the flames. 

These poles the two men now stretched out 
to us, and with them they drew us slowly and 
painfully from the bog-pit into which we had 




,EV ' LOWl.Y AND IAIN FULLY PROM THE BOG-PIT," 



THE "WHITE AVENGERS." 



291 



fallen. This task was accomplished at the very 
instant when the " Avengers " were just revealing 
their horrid, expressionless, white-masked visages 
at the far edge of the mire pool, which the 
flames had already leaped over. 

They saw us and our dusky rescuers at the 
same instant ; and the awe-inspiring clucking 
arose in unison from their throats. Our black 
friends were so stricken with fear at the sound 
that they had hard work to keep sufficient 
courage to stick to their mission of salvation. 
Their eyes rolled in fright and their teeth 
chattered, but they stayed by us until they had 
hauled us on to firm ground. 

As we started to run in the direction taken 
by the negroes, our pur- 
suers, seeing us escaping 
them, began a fierce 
fusillade with their long;- 
barrelled sharpshooters' 
muskets, such as were 
used during the Civil 
War. The bullets 
whistled about us like 
hail. 

The two black men 
had often come to this 
swamp forest to hunt ; 
and through the mile or 
more yet remaining of 
successive sink - holes, 
edged with treacherous 
underbush and clogged 
with fallen giant pines, 
they had laid a trail, 
through which they now 
guided us in nimble 
leaps. 

We were just con- 
gratulating ourselves 
upon our certain escape 
from the swamp, the 
outer edge of which we 
could now see dimly in 
the distance, when the 
foremost of our black 
guides suddenly uttered 
a shrill scream of agony, 
threw his hands wildly 
above his head, and fell 
prostrate. A musket- 
ball had pierced his 
heart, and when, an in- 
stant later, I knelt down 
by the poor fellow's side 
I found him stone dead. 

This sad catastrophe 
speedily dispelled all our 
previous 



ness; the school-teacher was so infuriated at the 
deed that I had trouble in restraining him from 
going back into the swamp and engaging the 
swarm of white-shrouded demons single-handed. 

We could do nothing for the dead man, and 
were forced to leave him where he was, much 
as we regretted doing so after his brave efforts 
in our behalf. 

There were more pressing matters claiming 
our instant attention, however, if we proposed 
saving ourselves. The conflagration having 
reached the rim of some of the larger mire 
pools, which were practically ponds of water, 
had run short of fuel, and was now dying out. 
Coupled with this, the moon, hitherto shining 




lighthearted- 



THE FOREMOST OF OUR BLACK GUIDES THREW HIS HANDS WILDLY ABOVE HIS HEAD AND 

FELL PROSTRATE." 



THK WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 



brilliantly, had gone under a huge bank of 
clou I at the moment the first waft of 

from the open fields struck our faces, at 
the of the swamp, the air about us 

:ne inky dark. 
A: a distance back in the dismal lagoon we 
could hear the hoarse cries of the demon horde 
—the white-shrouded "Avengers" — now too 
■ extricating themselves from the swamp to 
rt to their devilish duckings. Without 
Idenly engulfed in intense dark 
-. they were getting deeper and deeper into 
• ake dnd alligator infested labyrinths of 
the mor 

We made our way 
■v.ird the 
open fields with the 
hoarse cries of our 
pursuers still ringing 
ars. In at- 
tempting to trap us 
ring the swamp 
- behind us, they 
had got caught I 
then. instead. 

We only hoped they 
re stuck deep 
enough in the bogs 
to permit us to 
- >d start toward 
plantation, after 
which we would trust 
tq our Once 

on the plantation, I 
had what I still con- 
a clever trick 
in mind, wherebv I 




could set the teacher and the remaining negro 
guide safely upon their way in disguise, for it 
must be remembered that the negro would 
henceforth be a marked man to these swamp 
demons, and that his life would be forfeit if he 
did not get well out of the country. 

Bordering the side of the swamp we were 
approaching was a broad field of cotton, through 
the centre of which ran a rough trail leading to 
the plantation buildings, two miles away, all the 
vast property being owned by my uncle, with 
whom I then made my home. A few feet from 
the trail, and running parallel with it, a big 

trench had been dug 
to serve as a drain. 
This was eight or ten 
feet deep, and of 
about the same width, 
and it extended from 
the swamp right 
through the cotton- 
field, terminating 
near the centre of 
the plantation, some 
distance beyond the 
mansion. Several 
stout bridges crossed 
the trench in its 
course. 

A knowledge of 
these facts is essential 
to the proper under- 
standing of the series 
of strange adventures 
which were to happen 
in the cotton-field a 
few moments later. 



' A PART I IV AMP WHERE THR YOUNG SCHOOL-TEACHER 

From a] AND His RESCUER bAFFI.F.D THEIR PURSUERS. {Photo. 



(To be continued.) 

>.nt of this exciting narrative details the further adventures of the fugitives 
"Avengers" in order to baffle their pursuers: and ho7V t/ie school- 
teacher xfely away at a moment when capture seemed certain. 




Jfre Gorroboress of JMeu? South Wales. 

By Charles H. Kerry. 

The well-known Sydney photographer tells all about the strange and fantastic dances of the aboriginal 
savages of his Colony, and illustrates his paper with a set of striking photographs, taken by himself. 

HE decadence 
of the aborigi- 
nal races of 
Australia and 
the absolute 

certainty of their utter 

extinction in the Colony 

of New South Wales (and 

that at an early date) lend 

a mournful and pathetic 

interest to the movements 

of the few scattered rem- 
nants which are all that 

now remain to tell of the 

past glories of the powerful 

tribes who ruled this old, 

weather-beaten continent 

until the advent of the 

pale face a few generations 

back. 

Modern civilization 

grafted on to a savage 

mode of life has been 

fatal to our native race. 

With no inherent knowledge to guide their were 

selection of the new customs presented, they parts 




From a] THE king of the tribe — HIS hut is considered quite pretentious. 



[P/wto. 




unable to assimilate any of the higher 
of civilization, but most faithfully copied 

the worst of its 
vices, with de- 
plorable results. 
The shrinkage 
in number of our 
full - bl ood ed 
aboriginals in 
the short space 
of a few years is 
sad but eloquent 
testimony of the 
fact that we are 
within measur- 
able distance of 
the time when 
the last natural 
lord of the soil 
will have follow- 
ed Tasmania's 
" Trucanini " to 
the Great Un- 
known. 
Under 



drafting sheei 



-this was performed in honour of a neighbouring sheep-owner. 
From a Photo. 



the 
of a 
spe- 
cially constituted 



supervision 
"Board," 






the wide World magazine. 




- 



HEALING THE SICK WARRIOR — THE MEDICINE-MEN EXAMINING THE PATIENT. 



for their protection, the few fragments of tribes 
which still remain in different districts are 
lered into locations specially reserved for 
their use. At yearly intervals blankets and 
clothing are doled out to each member, and 
food rations are also regularly allotted to the 
. children, and old warriors. A 
certain amount of influence is also exercised to 
minimize the drifting of population from one 
location to another; but the old primitive 
nature will assert itself at intervals, and despite 
official regulations, the desire to enact the 
ancient role of 
the savage finds 
vent ever and 
anon in great 
menials, of 
which "corro- 
jrm 
the principal 

corro- 

are. in 

:, theatrical 

. ta t i o n s 

cumstat; 

: C h have 
come under the 

gnizanci 
members of the 
tribe, and which 
it is desirable 
shall be always 
r e m e m b e red 



and perpetuated. 
Thus, according 
to its different 
experiences, 
each tribe may 
have a totally 
different reper- 
toire of scenes 
for representa- 
tion, and these 
again may be 
varied or added 
to as occasion 
arises. Pro- 
ficiency is gained 
by frequent re- 
hearsals, and 
thus young 
members are 
continually 
being trained in 
knowledge of 
events which 
may have hap- 
pened long before, and in this way is savage 
history recorded. Australian aborigines are 
essentially poetical and musical, and therefore 
a very necessary adjunct to a corroboree is a 
weird chanting by the gins, who keep time by 
beating two sticks together, their voices rising 
or falling with the varied excitement engen- 
dered by the stirring details of the corroboree. 
The theme in each case is descriptive of the 
events then being portrayed by the warriors. 

When a series of these representations is 
decided on a full muster of the tribe is arranged, 



[Photo. 




From a] 



YEARS AGO. 



ENCOUNTER WHICH TOOK PLACE 

[Photo. 



THE CORROBOREES OE NEW SOUTH WALES. 



295 




From a 



ONE OF THE CURIOUS DANCES PERFORMED BEFORE THE AUTHOR. 



{Photo. 



and invitations are dispatched to adjoining 
sections for the purpose of securing a thorough 
and effecthe display. Latterly the practice 
has fallen so much into disuse that a private 
intimation of such a meeting to be held in an 
unfrequented part of our Western district was 
sufficient to induce me to make a very hasty 
trip over the intervening five hundred miles for 
the purpose of being present. 

The tribe undertaking the honours on this 
occasion number about one hundred, and their 
camp is picturesquely situated on the fringe of 
that peculiar 
natural feature 
known as the 
"Macquarie 
Reed-Beds." 
This is the spot 
where the River 
Macquarie sud- 
denly loses its 
identity as a 
defined stream, 
and merges into 
a maze of pools 
and channels, 
alternating with 
enormous fields 
of giant reeds, the 
whole covering 
some hundreds 
of square miles. 
The spot is well 
chosen for the 



abiding-place of 
a nomadic hunt- 
ing tribe. Of 
wild game there 
is no lack ; the 
r abounds 
with fish : thou- 
sands of wild 
pigs roam over 
the reed - beds ; 
r - fowl in- 
numerable find 
a breeding-place 
there ; and kan- 
garoos and emus 
throng the plains 
which stretch 
out to the West- 
ern sun. 

The " m i a 
mias," or huts, 
are of the usual 
primitive cha- 
racter, consisting 
chiefly of a few 



sheets of bark supported on poles. The King's 
dwelling-place, as befits a monarch, is more 
pretentious, being further adorned with a few old 
bags. The accommodation in each hut is 
limited, but is, nevertheless, shared equally with 
the horde of dogs who owe allegiance to the 
camp. Adjoining the settlement a circle of about 
forty yards diameter has been marked out 
with a trench, and the centre thoroughly 
cleared, levelled, and swept. This is the 
corroboree ground, and here the painted and 
bedecked warriors thronged nightly to enact 




' A DUEL TO THE DEATH 



SECONDS AND SPECTATORS ARE PREPARING TO INTERFERE. 

From a Photo. 






rill. WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 



their various 
pa r t s in the 
mimi :nes. 

Mr. In/ W. Hill 

the 

sheep 

statioi . "• Qua u- 

b o n e " — had 

made the neces- 

y arrange- 
niei my 

visit and h e 

mpanied me 
to the tamp, 
w li i c h w a s 
ed at night- 
fall. A system- 
atic course of 
h u m a n e a n d 
kindly treatment 
had end 
Mr. Hill to the 

whole of the tribes, and his arrival was greeted 
with many manifestations of pleasure. We were 
escorted to the corroboree ground and placed 
on the edge of the circle, so that the light 
from the numerous fires around should provide 
a full view of the weird proceedings. An 
interpreter stood beside us and explained the 
meaning of the various movements. 

As a compliment to Mr. Hill, the first 

■;boree was " 1 )rafting Sheep on Quambone. " 













■ 




3 








|l J 






mm& ^ 






/*>5^H 


W^<—> fc* v3 








aft 








LkAl W> 




■^^| 




i^s™ 


1 






+% 

^ 4 






t- 


V2 ^ &Z/ 1 * * 





From a] 



THE QUAINT FISH CORROBOREE —OBSERVE THE ANTICS OF THE FISH. 



| Photo. 




Front a] 



RS— WARRIORS 
OF l-LACES VISITED. 



A number of warriors in full war-paint stepped 
into the ring, grouped themselves together, and, 
at a signal from the King, dropped on all fours. 
These were the sheep. Two men took up an 
adjacent position with boomerangs in each 
hand, held with the point to the ground. 
These were in charge of the drafting gates. 

Another fierce and picturesque-looking savage 
stood by to count, and attempts were then 
made to drive the " sheep " through. This, 
however, the mob evidently resisted 
strongly, and excitement ran very high 
as they rushed and backed and bleated 
and kept ringing, until in desperation a 
man was directed to secure one of the 
sheep and pass him bodily through as 
a decoy. He rushed to the group, 
seized one by the head, and, in spite 
of violent resistance on the sheep's part 
and many attempts to butt his captor, 
dragged him forcibly through the gates. 
Following the decoy came all the mob, 
the counter and drafters meanwhile 
doing their work most carefully and 
systematically. The tally showing that 
some sheep were missing, they were 
recounted through the gates, and the 
performance with variations was re- 
peated until a correct tally was 
announced. The gins then ceased 
tluir chant, the men assumed an erect 
position once more, and the scene was 
over. The weird light of the fires, the 
rhythmic cadence of the accompanying 
song, and the intense earnestness of 
the performers — painted savages all — 
with their marvellous attention to 



II '. NAMES 

{Photo. 



THE CORROBOREES OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 



297 




THE MYSTIC " BORA," OR INITIATION OF THE YOUNG MEN — PROBABLY THE LAST THAT WILL EVER BE HELD IN THE 

From a] colony of new south wales. [Photo. 



detail, made the whole corroboree a study of 
absorbing interest. 

"A Sick Warrior" followed. In this the 
principal performer, lying prostrate in the circle, 
apparently in a state of utter collapse, is dis- 
covered by another warrior. The chief medicine- 
man is brought, and he carefully examines the 
patient. Then, failing to effect any improve- 
ment, he retires, to return presently with two 
others, also of the " medical profession.'' The 
case being serious, an incantation is necessary, 
and the three approach by devious courses, 
crouching low to the ground and making 
numerous mystic signs and gestures. Another 
examination of the sick man follows, and the 
remainder of the tribe are summoned. These 
approach in the same manner as the doctors, 
and under special treatment the patient exhibits 
gradual signs of improvement. Finally he 
recovers, and is able to leave with the others 
amid shouts of rejoicing. 

' The Unfaithful Gin " depicts the decoying 
away of a gin from the camp by a brave of 
another tribe. The journeying through the 
forest, the tracking of the fugitives by the 
wronged husband, and the ultimate discovery, 
followed by a fierce fight, in which the whole 
tribe assist in beating the culprits to death. 
render this corroboree a thrilling and fascinating 
spectacle. 

"A Battle" is descriptive of incidents in 
connection with a sanguinary engagement said 
to have taken place many years ago between 
rival tribes in the Far West. 

'The Drunken Wife," "Rival Cooks," 

shearing Sheep," and other corroborees re- 
produced for our benefit were all staged with 
the most minute attention to detail. 

Vol. xii,- 38. 



Immediately at the termination of each scene 
the assembled warriors, obeying a given signal, 
rushed in a body to the centre of the rng and, 
following the 1 ad of a chief, recited in a loud 
voice and in quick sucression the names of a 
number of spots in the district, marching rapidly 
around the while and accompanying each name 
with an elevation of their weapons and a 
heavy stamp of the feet, the whole ending 
with a unanimous chorus of " He ! He ! He ! 
Waugh ! " 

At each repetition of this act fresh names 
were used, so that in the course of an evening 
some hundreds were thus recited. This custom 
is part of the education of the young men, and 
is intended to impress on their memories the 
names of spots which in their wanderings they 
might have occasion to visit. 

The corroborees referred to herein formed 
only a small part of the Macquarie tribe's 
repertoire. New scenes were introduced nightly 
for about a week, the tribal meeting eventually 
ending with a " Bora," or initiation of young 
men. This mystic ceremony, which we were 
privileged to see and photograph, is probably 
the last that will ever be held in this Colony. 
The moving spirits in these tribal rites are the 
older braves, and as they pass on to their happy 
hunting-grounds the younger men lose the 
incentive and inclination to submit to anything 
in the nature of an ordeal. This is not- 
surprising — the artificial nature of their sur- 
roundings engenders an apathy not easily 
disturbed, -and which, perhaps, is after all only 
a merciful preparation for that inevitable doom 
which awaits the race ; for certainly the 
characters on the wall are writ large enough 
for all to see and interpret. 




Showing how a scheming Indian chief arranged a match for his pretty niece that would bring 

him much wealth; how the niece disapproved of the arrangement and fled to the woods; how her 

irate guardian pursued the fugitive; how the poor little maid was rescued in the nick of time by her 

white friend ; and how confusion fell upon the match-makers. 




AHEM A, a Comanche maiden of 
fifteen, had just returned from the 
" grass payment " near Fort Sill. 
She went back from the payment 
with her uncle, Pad-i-acre, her father 
:ng died while at the payment, either from a 
cold he contracted or from the effects of poison 
in the "boot-It. y" that so often finds its 

among the Indians at "grass-payment" 
time. Her mother had died years before, at a 
time when Nahema's age rendered her recol- 
lection very indistinct. 

nanche laws her uncle, Pad-i-acre, 

became not only her guardian, but occupied 

aim- tly the place of her father as to 

the future disposition of her person and her 

prop- , father of Xahema was the 

owner of one hundred head of ponies and 

nearly as many cattle, but they were all herded 

- rther with those of his brother, Pad-i-acre. 

Now, Nahema's uncle was a man of business, 

so far as business qualities are possible with an 



Indian, and being the guardian of Nahema and 
the keeper of her property he conceived the 
shrewd idea of giving her away in marriage to 
some Indian who would take her for herself 
alone, and not want any ponies or cattle. 

Many Comanches of good repute, who had 
not more than two or three wives of their own, 
were looking with wistful and hopeful eyes on 
the pretty Nahema, whom the old squaws 
usually called " The Fawn," on account of her 
graceful, fleet-footed, and wild appearance. 

Of all the Comanche maidens Nahema 
was the fairest. Many white men who 
hoped to become " squaw " men and have 
Indian rights in the tribe looked upon her in a 
favourable way, and with her property she 
could have had her choice from among a 
hundred men outside and inside her tribe. But 
Pad-i-acre's business eye had selected a husband 
for her, and according to Indian custom she 
had no word of choice and no further need of 
action than to go with the mate chosen for her 



THE WEDDING THAT WENT WRONG. 



209 



by her uncle. No ceremony, no words, no 
witnesses, no license, no anything but the 
"giving away " of the bride. 

Old Tis-i-quava, an Indian who had already 
three wives in his tepees, was the one selected 
for the husband of Nahema. He was willing 




NAHEMA, THE COMANCHE MAIDEN" WHO FI.ED FROM HER 
MARRIAGE WITH THE* OLD INDIAN CHIEF TIS-I-QUAVA. 

front a Photo. 



to take her, waive all right to her property, and 
give twenty ponies besides. 

Pad-i acre gave a big dance and " mescal 
eat " at his house and invited numerous friends 
to come and eat and dance with him. An 
Indian runner from Mexico had brought a 
big supply of mescal beans, and could not 
Pad-i-acre afford to be liberal now that he was 
to get so many horses from the giving away of 
his niece ? He thought so, at least, and pre- 
pared for a " heap big time."' 

Tis-i-quava came and pitched two big 
tepees — one for his family and one for his 
bride. To this he was to lead home the 
youthful and pretty Nahema, for Pad-i-acre had 
agreed that the big " give away " should take 
place at the dance. There were present also 
the tepees of a dozen other prominent men of 
the neighbourhood, who would eat mescal and 



congratulate old Tis-i-quava on his good luck 
in catching the graceful Fawn. 

The eating went on, the wild-eyed Comanches 
danced or related stories of the past, as best 
suited their humour, and the old cow-hide drum 
resounded steadily to the strokes of sturdy 
young bucks brought there for the purpose. 

Nahema was not without suspicion of her 
uncle's intentions ; in fact, it had been told to 
her that she must be prepared to be given away. 
Every beat of the old drum in her uncle's housi 
sent a shock to her heart. She little relished 
the idea of becoming the fourth wife of old 
Tis-i-quava. She had seen many glances from 
white men and listened to words that suited her 




PAD-I-ACRE — NAHEMA S UNSCRUPULOUS UNCLE. 
From a Photo. 

ideas of future domestic bliss better than those 
suggested by the plans of her uncle. She had 
little the appearance of a happy bride, though 
the old squaws had fixed her up in the most 
flashing colours of red calico, ribbons, and a 
buckskin - jacket, ornamented with elks' teeth, 
that had been worn by her mother. She impa- 
tiently waited for the hour, hoping that it might 
never come, yet wishing that it were ended. 






nil- WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 




.1 eat " went on, all night 

the drun n, and all night and the next 

the old Indians sat and ate and talked and 

During all this time the poor 

Indian _ for the sacrifice, until the 

_ of tl wh n she was 

inmmon i her uncle and 

•us old Tis-i-quava. 

trances, gave way in 

■ uncle, and 

gained , . nt from each aged Indian 

- 

"Let m< it last, "go with old 

.. here I will 
aw of my husband." 

This request was accepted by all with grunts 



of approval, and Nemica led 
Nahema to the tepee of Tis- 
i-quava. At the door of the 
tepee the bride stooped and 
went in, bidding Nemica go 
hack to the house and notify 
Tis i-quava that she awaited 
his coming. 

Xo sooner had the moc=- 
casined feet of Nemica 
started back to the house 
than Nahema lifted the other 
side of the tepee and ran 
out into the darkness. Now 
she was indeed the Fawn — 
the frightened fawn hunting 
for cover. She knew her 
time was short, and her 
hiding-place must be quickly 
found. 

Now, once upon a time 
Pad-i-acre had built himself, 
at the solicitation of some 
contractor, a barn which he 
needed as badly as he did a 
fifth wheel to his waggon. 
This barn was a story and 
a half high, having a loft for 
hay which never had any hay 
in it. Having no use for the 
barn, Pad-i-acre put a chain 
and lock on the door, so that 
it was never opened from one 
year until another. Nahema 
ran to the barn, as the near- 
est place in her flight, and 
tried to open the door, but 
finding it locked she pulled 
out the bottom of the door 
and pushed her slender body 
through. Once inside she 
climbed to the loft and, with 
her heart beating hard against 
her side, listened for the uproar that was sure 
to follow. 

Tis-i-quava was not long in following the old 
squaw back to the tepee, and his step was 
very light for a bridegroom of sixty winters. 
When the tepee was reached and found to be 
empty the truth dawned upon them. The little 
Fawn had dared to disobey, and had run away 
from the commands of her uncle and guardian ! 
A shout and a wail of disappointment aroused 
Pad-i-acre, who was happy with the results of 
his scheming. In great wrath and with many 
threats he summoned help from the old men 
and the young men to go in search of Nahema, 
and bring her back to the tepee of her husband. 
There were hurrying feet in every direction. 



THE WEDDING THAT WENT WRONG. 



301 



All about the barn they searched, and in every 
tepee and hiding-place. The barn door being 
locked and tried, and no other opening offering, 
it was decided that it was useless to look inside, 
and that the Fawn must have made a run for the 
timber, over half a mile away. Thither they 



calling 



away, 
her name and 



demanding 



her 



retreating 



foot- 



went, 
return. 

No sooner did she hear the 
steps and the receding voices 
than she climbed down from 
the loft, squeezed out again a 
the bottom of the door, and ran 
for the prairie in the opposite 
direction to that in which her 
pursuers had 
gone. On she 
went like the 
wind, her light 
form gliding 
through the dark- 
ness like a 
shadow, and her 
buckskin coat 
and long black 
hair flapping 
in the wind 
behind her. On 
she went unti 
she was met by 
the timber and 
the roaring 
waters of Cache 
Creek. She was 
soon across and 
lost in the heavy 
brush and timber 
and the huge 
rocks that bor- 
dered it on both 
sides. On and 
on she went until, turn by green briers and 
scratched by thorns, she finally sat clown in 
a thicket to rest. Her pursuers were entirely 
baffled, and she felt certain that they could 
not find her. 

Now fur the first time the loneliness of her 
situation and her utter helplessness dawned 
upon her — alone, without food, with no shelter. 
and no hope of help. The night grew cold as 
she rested, and a heavy clap of thunder came 
from a cloud in the north. Then lightning 
flashed and the thunder roared as if the rocks 
would roll from their places. The rain came 
down, cold, chilling, almost freezing. It found 
its way through her buckskin coat and thin 
calico skirt. What a place for the delicate 
Fawn ! She almost wished that she had 
obeyed her uncle, believing that the storm 




SHE KAN FOK THE t'KAlKlh. 



had been sent as a punishment for her dis- 
obedience. 

Pad-i-acre and his assistants were also caught 
out in the storm, and when the tempest was at 
its worst his uneasy conscience pricked him and 
he repented of what he had dune. He firmly 
believed that the storm was sent to deter him 
from his purpose of making Nahema the wife of 
Tis-i-quava and for stealing her fortune. With 

fear and trem 
bling and shiver 
ing with the cold 
and wet he re- 
turned tu his 
house, deter- 
mined to appease 
the celestial 
puwers by beat- 
ing drums and 
" making medi- 
cine " until an- 
other day. 

Nahema sal 
crunching in her 
culd, wet hiding- 
place until all at 
once she heard 
the brush crack 
near her, and 
looking in that 
direction she saw 
two eyes gleam- 
ing in the dark- 
ness. She sprang 
to her feet in alarm. Then there 
rang out an ear-splitting scream, 
such as wild cats and panthers 
sometimes utter. This sent her 
off like a shot through the bushes, 
through the briers, through the 
cold rushing waters of the creek 
up to her waist, until she had gained the bank 
on the opposite side of the stream. 

She did not stop running until she came out 
on the prairie in sight of Pad-i-acre's house. 
Sitting down on the prairie and looking at the 
lights she reviewed the situation. She had 
almust resclved tu return and becume the bride 
uf the repulsive Tis-i-quava when the tum-tum- 
tum uf Pad-i-acre's drum recalled her to the 
realities of the life she had fled from. Now, 
brought face to face with it again, she dreaded 
the sturm, the cold, the wild cat, and even 
death itself less than she did the fate that 
awaited her as the wife of Tis-i-quava. Again 
she turned about and ran toward the creek and 
the dark woods and the rocks and the wild cat. 
Again she waded the now swollen and roaring 
stream, and again she wandered farther and 



I HI WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 



Sometin would take shelter 

. which broke the force of 

gave her a little rest, but the cold 

mist keep moving or she 

helplessn* ss She 

step was a stagger, 

■ 

I, daylight came at last. and. 

out. the poor child found a place 

where the sun shone 

i her kindly and put her to sleep. She 

a tin that she was pursued by 

nd his hand of followers, was chased 

ind streams and over rocks and 

. and was about to be captured when 

met her girlhood friend, a white boy named 

tdopted by the tribe. 
amed that he took her upon his horse 
in front of him and ran away with her, leaving 
the Indian band far in the rear. She dreamed 
that they were making their escape successfully 
when t: te to a deep river swollen by the 



canyon in which she lay hidden and looked 
out across the bottom in hopes that we might 
see someone coming along a road that she knew 
ran up and down the valley. 

After a time a lone horseman appeared in 
sight upon the road and was coming. Oh, how 
her heart throbbed with hope ! She got behind 
a clump of bushes so that she could see whether 
he was a Tivo (white man) or an Indian. 

The horseman came on at a fierce gallop and 
she saw that he was a white man. Then, to her 
intensejoy, she recognised Newton, her friend 
and playmate. Her dream was coming true ! 
He passed at a gallop, and when opposite her 
she gave as loud a cry as her growing weakness 
would permit. He paused, checked his horse, 
and looked round, listening. But Nahema did 
not repeat the cry, for she saw farther down the 
road Pad-i-acre and his band hunting for her. 
Newton rode on to meet them. 

After the storm abated and daylight had 
come and Tis-i-quava had demanded his bride 




HID TQ AV( 

From a Pltoto. l>y Collins 



- d in and the cold water.-, 

art and a shriek to find 

!. that she had slept a long 

ime, and ti, ne down. Another 

which mid not hope to 

r. She attempted to move, 

^ ut her benumbed limbs. 

crawled to the top of the bank of the 



HD THE II !>-,UIT OF TAU-1-ACRE - BRAVES. 
Portrait ami I 'tew Company. 

or the return of his twenty ponies, Pad-i-acre 
changed his mind in regard to the mission of 
the storm and, gathering all the forces he could, 
set out upon another hunt for the errant Fawn. 
All day he had hunted and all day been dis 
appointed, until he unexpectedly ran up against 
Xewton. He remembered the friendship of 
Newton and the girl, and at once made up his 
mind that Newton was responsible for her 



THE WEDDING THAT WENT WRONG. 



3°3 



escape. He and his band surrounded him and 
questioned him, but he told them, truthfully, 
that he knew nothing either of the " giving 
away," of her escape, or of her present 
whereabouts. 



Then on another dark night, after she had 
recovered her strength, he took her up behind 
him on his horse and rode with her the greater 
portion of the night, across roaring streams, 
over stony mountain paths, down dark canyons, 




c«o{Lt,ftS<"P^a 



He had not forgotten the pain- 
ful cry he had heard at the head 
of the canyon, however, and when 
the Indians were out of sight he 
made a circuit and rode back to 
the spot. There he found his 
little Indian girl friend, almost dead with 
fatigue, exposure, hunger, cold, and fear. In 
a moment he was off his horse, and had taken 
his big Government overcoat and wrapped it 
about her. Then he put her up in front of him 
and rode away southward across the swollen 
and roaring torrent, until finally, about mid- 
night, he came to the cabin of a lone cowboy 
who looked after the interests of a big cattle- 
man. There he put the worn-out little maid to 
bed, fed her, and took care of her for two days. 



FOUND HIS LITTLE INDIAN GIRL FRIEND ALMOST 
DEAD WITH FATIGUE. " 



and along uncertain roads, until he reached one 
of the mission churches and schools established 
for the benefit of Indian children. There he 
left her, and there she remained for many 
months under the kindly care of the mission 
folk. On his information the Indian agent 
at Anadarko investigated the case. Old Tis-i- 
quava got back his twenty ponies, but lost 
his bride, and the scheming Pad-i-acre was 
forced to give up to his niece the property left 
her by her father. 






*-< ^>"£ 




'MteSEtm 



Hidden away in the wilds of Cumberland is the quaintest 
little railway imaginable — a comic-opera line with one 
engine and a " Royal saloon," consisting of a cattle-truck 
with glass windows. The stations are wooden huts, each 
official fulfils the functions of half-a-dozen, and the 
•• express " train will stop to pick you up or set you 
down where you like. 




ES I ERN CUMBERLAND is in 

a great measure as yet unspoiled 

by the trammels of civilization. A 

large portion of it is wild, rugged, 

and sparsely inhabited, not offering 

sufficient attraction to the average tourist in the 

way of amusement to spoil its grand solitude 

with the clamour of the multitude. To the 

r of the beautiful, however, there are many 

. and the sportsman and the busy 

worker with a taste for undisturbed rambling 

will find it a paradi-' Even in the lonely dales 

the whistle of the railway-engine is not heard. 

nor does the motor as yet defile the landscape, 

laps on account of the steep hills engineered 

the playful architects of Fate, who strew them 

with diabolically-contrived booby-traps. 

The roads are awe-inspiring in their steepm 

but ther ke up the thread of my story 

—a still more surprising railway. North of 

Barrow-in-Furness is a junction called Raven- 

ange here for the Eskdale line," 

; the porter. As your ticket is for Irton 

-n that line you dismount and look 

around for your train. The porter collects your 

goods and, stepping across the rails past a 

ads you to a tiny siding whereby 

is a tar-coated wooden shed, covering some 



extremely crookedly-laid rails, three feet in 
gauge. On the rails are an engine of primitive 
design, a van ditto, and one coach still 
more so. The coach is a " composite " 
one, containing a guard's box, one third 
" smoker," and one ordinary third. These 
carriages hold at a pinch four slim adults a-side, 
and are innocent alike of racks, cushions, or 
communication -cords. As, however, the pace 
never exceeds five miles per hour, nervous 
passengers need not be deterred from journeying 
on the line on this account, for it is quite within 
the bounds of safety to alight while the train is 
going at full speed. Behind these vehicles, but 
not coupled to them, is another passenger- 
coach, containing a first-class carriage — the 
Royal saloon, so to speak. To-night this is 
left behind to ease the engine's burden. 

There are no porters visible, but presently a 
guard arrives, and the engine, which has been 
employing its leisure in giving rides to two 
small boys, is coupled on ahead, and the guard, 
a composite official, unlocks a cupboard in the 
dim recesses of the shed and doles out four 
third-class tickets to the three others and your- 
self who comprise his load. He then locks up 
his " ticket office " and, packing you in, stares 
his tiny train on its perilous career up the 



A RAILWAY IN CHANCERY. 



3°5 



valley. It lurches, and 
groans, and rolls along 
in a manner that makes 
you wonder why you did 
not invest your spare 
coppers in insurance tic- 
kets. You also speculate 
whether the bottom will 
fall out of the 
carriage, the 
train pull up the 
rails, or the whole 
affair topple over 
into the river. 
Thick bracken 



Fr 




THE SOLITARY LOCOMOTIVE OF THE LINE. 



[Photo. 



brushes the footboards at either side, from out 
of which the head of an ancient Herd wick ram 
gazes up at the snorting, labouring 
engine. It is evidently an old ac- 
quaintance, and he pays but little heed 
to it. The stoker, whistling 
cheerfully, sits on the cab, 
swinging one leg over the 
side with an airy grace all 
his own. Presently, with a 
dislocating jerk, the train 
pauses dead with 
an abruptness 
that lands your 
portmanteau on 
your toes, and 
the stoker des- 
cends leisurely 
to drive a mis- 
guided ewe and 
lamb off the 
track into the 
clustering brac- 
ken. This act 

Vol. xii.— 39. 



SOME OP THE ROLLING-STOCK — IN THE REAR IS 

From a] the "royal saloon"! {Photo. 



of mercy being accomplished, and 
a pedestrian who suddenly appears 
over a wall having climbed on board 
for a "lift," this weird express grunts its toilsome 
way at last into " Irton Road Station," a wooden 
hut, with a siding whereon reposes a decaying 
truck filled with bricks. Here you dismount, and 
the guard, who has unlocked the hut and doled 
out more tickets, starts his comic-opera collec- 
tion of relics off again on its uncertain way 
round a bend, up into the beautiful cleft among 
the hills where, several stations away, lies the 
terminus, which is known as Boot. 

Boot is a quaint little 
hamlet. It owns an inn, 
of course, a most pictur- 
esque old mill, 
hoary with an- 
tiquity, stand- 
i n g on t h e 
brink of a brawl- 




From a ] 



the terminus ov the eskdale line. 



[Photo. 



I HK WIDE WORLD MAC.A/.IXK. 




THE TICKET- 
VRATORY Tii ISSUING Tit! 

■ to. 

mountain torrent, several venerable cottages 
and homesteads, and, last but not least, the 

on, which is the usual wooden shanty. 
Above it on the steep mountain side are the 



its birth. Boot — indeed, all Esk- 
daJe— was supposed to be rich in 
iron ore, but in a very short time 
it was found that the workings 
were unremunerative. and for 
many years little or no ore has 
passed over the line, which is 
eight miles long, with five stations. 
The country, beautiful as it is, is 
very scantily populated ; conse- 
quently the passenger and goods 
traffic is of a decidedly limited des- 
cription. It is not surprising, there- 
fore, that the working expenses 
swallow up most of the receipts, 
and for some years now, I under- 
stand, the railway has been " in 
Chancery," the consequence being 
that no repairs or renewal of rolling- 
stock are made which are not abso- 
lutely necessary, the utmost economy 
being exercised in the working of 
the line. There is only one loco- 
motive, which comprises all the 
hauling power, so those afflicted with 
nervous fears of collisions need have 
no dread of travelling on the line, 
though it be but a single one. 

The holiday season and trips — to local cattle 

shows and fetes— strain the powers of the 

officials to the utmost. Passengers who can- 




THF. ESKDALE RXPRESS EM ROUTE. 

From a I'hofo. 



old iron .an almost perpendicular 

railway bringing the ore down to the main line 
e the mark ! — of the " Boot Express." For 
it was as a mineral line that, about thirty 
years ago, this practical joke of a railroad had 



not be squeezed into the van or into the scanty 
carriages are accommodated in open coal-truck -- 
which the guard thoughtfully provides witl 
seats in the form of planks placed from sidt 
to side. Those who cannot obtain a seat 



A RAILWAY IN CHANCERY. 



3°7 



sit perched on the sides of the 
trucks, often dangling their legs over 
the sides. There is also a primitive 
cattle-truck which is pressed 
into service upon occasion. 

There is also a saloon 
car on this unique line ! 
Imagine to yourself a cattle- 
van with its ventilation 
panels glazed. Inside, in 
the middle, is a long 
wooden bench of exceed- 
ing hardness and narrow- 
ness. All round are more 
benches. Early comers sit 
on the benches ; unpunc- 
tual ones stand in between. 

The sleepers are ancient 
and the rails ditto, and tall 
yellow daisies grow between 
the rails. At intervals 
along the line there are 
ominous notice - boards, 
which nobody seems to take the least notice of, 
warning the adventurous against the awful perils 
of trespassing on the line. 

It is by no means an uncommon sight 
to see a venerable lady standing by the line 
waving an umbrella at the engine-driver, who 
courteously pulls up, a la tram-car, when the 
lady is hoisted on board by the obliging guard. 
On my last journey a gentleman of agricul- 
tural pursuits was sighted at a curve making 
signals with a side of bacon from a wall. 
He wished to be taken on board, and so we 
stopped and took him. It will thus be seen 
that if the rolling-stock 
is primitive and limited, 



n 




From a] 



SOME SPARE KOI. LING-STOCK. 



[Photo. 



_ 




From n\ 



' EXCURSION " MAKES THE OFFICIALS BUSY. 



so also is the method of conducting the 
business. 

The guard, the composite official before re- 
ferred to, discharges in himself the functions of 
head - quarters officials, guard, station-master, 
ticket-clerk, porter, and shunter. He issues 
the tickets, sees that the passengers are seated 
and that no more are visible anywhere on the 
horizon, and then starts his train. On arrival 
at the next station he jumps off, opens the 
shanty called by courtesy the " office," collects 
and issues tickets (taking with him what money 
is paid over), dismisses and takes in passengers 
and their luggage, and so on throughout 
the journey. It is said that at one station, 
where there is an hotel close by, the train 

will obligingly pause 
while intending pas- 
sengers finish con- 
suming their refresh- 
ment ! Just outside 
Beckfoot there is a 
tiny cistern wl 
the engine takes in 
water, and passengers 
can, if they wish, re- 
fresh themselves dur- 
ing this operation 
with the wild rasp- 
berries which grow 
in profusion by the 
side of the line. 

In addition to the 
halting at the five 
stations mentioned 
above, the " Eskdale 






nil-. WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 



- " will obligingly stop anywhere when 
i thoughtful custom around which 
many witti< ire hung by the residents in 

thy. 

ce, it is man who 

i purchase a horse from a tanner living 

• the railway that on getting out of the 

guard to be Mire and pick 

him up on the return jourm That official 

pped the train opposite the field 

d was being hotly 

till a bargain was struck, and 

uyer on board the "express." 

that on one occasion an indivi 

pped the train to ask the time of day, 

but • It to be encroaching too much 

the c nveniences of the line, and he was 

in ! 

ter leaving Muncaster the first station 

the line passes within a 

i mile of Miteside House, so called 

; .) its close proximity to the River Mite. 

fficient energy to venture 
a journey by the early morning train, you may 
notice that the Eskdale ••living Dutchman" 
pulls up opposite this house, where, a few yards 
-: from the line, stands an old boat resting 
on its side. Under its sheltering hull is a seat, 
and it is known locally by the sarcastic title of 
"M - tion." 

Under the boat, should it he raining, the 

rd deposits parcels or papers for the house, 

the engine-driver sounds a loud and ear-piercing 

st on his whistle to give notice to the family 










that their cargo for the day has arrived, and the 
train lurches slowly round the corner on its way 
up the valley. It is related of a former master 
of the dwelling that when he wished to stop the 
train after darkness set in he was accustomed to 
strike a flaming fusee. 

The same gentleman had a collie dog, who 
usually accompanied his master to a certain 
station on the line, but no dog-ticket was ever 
issued or asked for because the master on 
entering the train left the faithful hound outside, 
and the dog was always found waiting at the 
station for the train and his master. 

The Eskdale Railway is by no means expen- 
sive to travel on. Indeed, a friend of the writer 
stated that when going hunting, or when the 
usual train service did not fit in, he and his 
friends have frequently chartered a special train, 
the cost of which was ten shillings, which, it 
must be admitted, is not a ruinous charge for 
the aristocratic luxury of a "special." 

As, some summer evening, you journey in 
the heaving, groaning little train, wedged in 
between worthy tillers of the soil, you cannot 
but be struck with the amazing beauty of the 
wild, rude country. 'As your train, with a 
screeching of brakes — there is a vacuum 
brake, wonderful to relate, though the line is 
innocent of signals — sidles into Irton Road, 
great hills frown down on you, and while you 
stand in the middle of the grass-grown track 
watching the end of the luggage-van reel round 
the curve, grey crag and green fir are softened 
and blended in the rosy evening light of the 

dying sun, and a moun- 
tain stream tinkles down 
amongst the stones, 
under which lurk wily, 
scarlet-spotted trout. 

Shouldering your port- 
manteau, you stride away 
up the great hill round 
whose shoulder the road 
winds like a tawny rib- 
bon into Wasdale. You 
feel glad that the Chan- 
cellor's quaint little en- 
gineering effort still sur- 
vives, and has not yet 
been swept away by a 
hideous electric tramway, 
or a rushing, bustling ex- 
press, for the primitive 
simplicity of this extra- 
ordinary line seems 
more in keeping with the 
peace of the dale and 
the majesty of the 
mountains. 



Odds and Ends. 



A Christmas Carnival in West Africa — A Fenland Goose Farm — The " Miracle Church " — More 
" English as She is Written " — A Flag That Stopped a Railway, etc., etc. 




From a] 



A CHRISTMAS DAY GALA ON THE OPOBO RIVER, WEST AFRICA. 



[Photo. 




HRISTMAS is celebrated in the 
farthest corners of the Empire with 
just as much enthusiasm as it is at 
home. The accompanying photo- 
graph shows the annual Christmas 
Day gala on the Opobo River. AH work, of course, 
is suspended, and canoe races 
are the order of the day. All the 
chiefs have their canoes overhauled, 
and the boats are manned by the 
best paddlers available, each carry- 
ing from thirty to forty men. The 
rate of speed attained is pro- 
digious and the excitement of the 
spectators intense. The European 
traders find the prizes, and some 
official is usually appointed judge. 
After the finish of the races the 
" boys " retire to the town, where 
dancing and feasting are indulged 
in till daybreak. 

The curious little photograph 
here reproduced was taken from 
the top of the famous Cam- 
panile Tower at Venice some 
time before it collapsed. The 
camera was pointed down to- 
wards the square of St. Mark, 



where a band was playing at the time, 
while crowds of music-loving Venetians were 
strolling up and down. The picture gives 
a good idea of the great height of the old 
Campanile, and is probably one of the last 
taken from its summit. 




»' 








u 



LOOKING DOWN FROM THE TOP OF THE OLD CAMPANILE TOWER AT VENICE. 

From a Photo. 






THE WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 











K THF. CHRISTMAS MARKET ON' A FENLAND FARM. 



An thi r phase of < Christmas forms the subject 

F the above photograph, which will give our 

read ne idea of the scale on which geese 

reared for the Christmas market. The 

■shot was taken on a farm in Cambridgeshire 
ind shows seven out of a total of nine pens, 
each of which contains between five and six 
hundred gees 
Think of it! Be- 
tween five and six 

-and plump and 

itiful birds, all 

ned to have 
their necks wrung 
and to take their 
; • hristmas 

dinn 

the country ! i 
April till November 
the b 

it during the 

month there is 

und-up," 

and th- are 

pent hown in 

the [j 

I the 
tro a -rn, 

listinctly 
I, and the i 
mad- myriads 

birds is 



siderable distance both 
by day and night. 

We have now to look 
at an extraordinary 
photograph, showing the 
interior of the "miracle 
church" of Ste. Anne de 
Beaupre, a few miles 
from Quebec. This 
church may well be 
called the Lourdes of 
( anada, and many thou- 
sands of devout Catho- 
lics make the pilgrimage 
to it every year. Innu- 
merable are the claims 
made of wonderful cures 
of the halt and maimed, 
and as evidence thereof 
the visitor is shown huge 
pyramids of crutches and 
sticks left behind by 
pilgrims who no longer 
required them. This 
collection is well shown in our 



{Photo. 



extraordinary 
snap-shot. 

'1 he huge fantastic growth shown on the next 
page is probably the most remarkable Cactus in 
the world. It stands, a veritable giant of its kind, 
on the sun -scorched, wind-swept desert of 
Arizona, in the home of the species, the 



for 




a con- 



TIIE INTERIOR OF THE "MIRACLE CHURCH ' OF STE, 

From a Photo, by Notman. 



ANNE DE BEAL'rRE, 



ODDS AND ENDS. 



3" 



From a] 



gnarled, twisted, snaky branches 
making a grotesque figure. 
Thousands upon thousands of 
square miles in the southwestern 
States are thickly dotted with 
these strange and repulsive-look- 
ing natural monstrosities, but 
the one shown in the photo- 
graph, which is located in a 
dreary spot in the vicinity of 
Pima, Graham County, is the 
largest and " freakiest " yet 
discovered. 

Our next photograph was 
taken on the quaint little Island 
of Marken, in the Zuider Zee. 
Its point of interest is the tree, 
as it is the only one in the whole 
of the island ! There are some 
fourteen hundred inhabitants, all 
told, dwelling on this little patch, 
which even at its best cannot be 
called "dryland." Neither pota- 
toes nor cabbages, nor any of 
the things that help to eke out a poor man's in- 
come will flourish in this barren spot — barren of 
all except the long, salt marsh -grass. The dwel- 
lers' only occupation is fishing, and they live 
almost exclusively on a fish diet. Yet they are 
a sturdy race of people, quite distinct in dress 
and many customs from the rest of the Dutch 
nation. The children are dressed alike, both 
boys and girls, until they are eight years of age, 
when the boy's 
hair is cut short 
and he is put into 
knickerbockers. 
Prior to the eighth 
year the boy wears 
a stripe worked 
with white mate- 
rial on the front 
of his jacket, and 
a little button on 
the top of his 
cap ; these are 
the only distin- 
guishing marks. 
There is not a 
single horse on 
the whole island, 
so when a funeral 
takes place the 
coffin is put into 
a boat, which is 
drawn by the 
nearer relatives 
to the place of 
interment, near 




AN EXTRAORDINARY CACTUS IN THE ARIZONA DESERT. 



[Photo. 




THE ONLY TREE ON THE ISLAND OF MARKEN. 

Prom a Photo, by F. IV. Jacobs. 



the centre of the island. In winter -time 
the greater part of the island is flooded, 
and then the islanders climb up into the 
attic portions of their dwellings, taking their 
cows with them. It is no unusual sight for 
those who pass in vessels to see the cows poking 
their heads out of the upper windows of houses 
that rise out of the water. Of sheep there are 
none, and, moreover, no Dutchman eats mutton. 

As fisher - folk 
deriving their 
bread from the 
practice of their 
calling on the 
Zuider Zee, they 
naturally look 
forward with ap- 
prehension to the 
time when the 
Zuider Zee will 
be no more, for 
the Dutch Govern- 
ment are consider- 
ing a project for 
draining the sea 
and turning the 
area it occupies 
into fertile land. 

In our October 
number we pub- 
lished a brilliant 
specimen of 
"English as she 
is written " in 
Spain. We give 






THE WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 



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every good 

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above a J sp< i imen almost as good. 

Concerning ii a reader sends from British 

1 dumbia : "Whilst coasting in the schooner 

bhin we landed in a small bay at the north- 

iint of Texada Island, in the Gulf of 

\ . North Pacific Islands. The nearest 

:it was an Indian village some miles 

ich I picked up the enclosed 



paper, which had evidently been washed 
ashore. In all probability it had travelled 
all the way from Japan, some four or five 
thousand miles distant. It had evidently 
adorned some tinned delicacy, and carries 
a legend in Japanese and an English trans- 
lation." The charm of this translation is 
its mystery. What, for instance, does "by 
its tins bottoms large" mean? And how 
is one to know if the stuff is bad if it has 
to-be sent back "without to open"? 

The last photograph shows how the 
American flag stopped operations on a rail- 
road. Recently the employes of a company 
operating a division of the Maine Central 
Railroad left work on account of a griev- 
ance which they had against an official. The 
people along the route sympathized with 
them, this being especially the case at a 
town called Vassalboro. The feeling here 
reached such a pitch that timbers and other 
obstructions were placed on the rails to 
prevent the running of trains. The company 
had these removed several times, 'when 
finally the villagers placed some ties across 
the track and erected over them an 
American flag. Several men with guns 
then mounted guard over the barrier, 
threatening to shoot anyone who molested 
"Old Glory." As a result trains were discon- 
tinued, the officials being averse to interfering 
with the flag. Finally they decided to compromise 
with the locked-out employes, whereupon the 
flag-protected obstruction was removed. Prob- 
ably this is the only instance in which the 
popular sentiment for the national flag has been 
made use of to stop the running of a railway. 




From a] 



A FLAG THAT STOPPED A RAILWAY. 



[Photo. 




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The Wide World Magazine. 



Vol. XII. 



FEBRUARY, 1904. 




No, 70 



Philadelphia has the reputation of 

being one of the most quiet and digni- 
fied cities in the United States, but once a year it lapses into un- 
restrained frivolity. The occasion is a curious carnival called the 
" New Year Mummers' Parade," which is here described by a 
resident of the city. 




OR three hundred and sixty-four days 
in the year Philadelphia lives up to 
its national reputation of being the 
" slowest " city in the United States; 
but for one glorious day the Quaker 
town vies with New Orleans, Rome, and Paris as 
a centre of frivolity suddenly stricken mad. It 
is a very methodical madness, however, for the 
chief participants in this great annual festival of 
Philadelphia — which is known as the New Year 
Mummers' Parade — begin their preparations for 
the following year as soon as the sun sets on the 
scene of gaiety. 

One of the objects to be gained is the winning 
of large cash prizes offered by the civic authorities 
for the most elaborate and novel costumes worn 
in the procession, and for the club whose 
members make the most striking appearance on 
parade. 

Each year the eccentricity of the costumes 
exceeds that of the previous year. Immense 



Vol. 



40. 



sums are spent on the costumes of the Kings, 
of whom there are several in the procession, and 
numbers of girls are employed for months 
previous to the date ol the festival, cutting out 
and embroidering the material intended for 
their Majesties' finery on festival day. The 
larger the robe and the finer the embroidery, 
the better the chance of winning a prize. A 
hundred young Philadelphians will form them- 
selves into a club and do little else in their 
spare time but plan and prepare for the annual 
parade, paying subscriptions into a general 
fund, from which the milliner's bill is to be met, 
and looking forward to winning a cash prize 
sufficient to at least reimburse them for the 
initial outlay. 

As many as ninety pages are sometimes re- 
quired to support some of the gorgeous robes 
worn by the Kings at this curious festival. 
The parade takes place on Broad Street, the 
widest thoroughfare in the city, and the Royal 






11 IK WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 







A KIM. AND HIS RETINUE PASSING DlllVX BROAD STREET. 



{Photo. 



robes are made large enough to stretch from 

i to kerb when pulled out to their full width 

the attendant ]>.i_< -. Their weight being 

enormous, it would be impossible for even the 

sturdy men selected as Kings to support them 



but for the small army of gorgeously-clad pages 
who carry sections of the train. At times, 
when the street narrows or the crowd is so dense 
that it is impossible for the pages to stretch the 
robe to its full length, the weight necessarily 




1 HE " KINGS "—THESE I 



From a\ 



MHAPl'V MONAKCIIS OKTKN l-AINT hliu.M THE 



WEIGHT OF THEIR GORGEOUS ROBES. 



E\i IRMOUS 

[Photo. 



A NEW YEAR PARADE. 



falls to a great extent on 
the shoulders of the 
King, and His Majesty 
frequently faints from 
the terrible strain of sup- 
porting his splendour 
without the aid of the 
pages. 

These pages are attired 
in costumes that match 
the robe of the King, 
and as a Royal retinue 
passes along to the music 
of a military band the 
spectacle is a magnificent 
one. But the Kings are 
not the entire show by 
any means. Following 
each Royal personage 
comes a motley proces- 
sion of revellers, each 
dressed according to his 
own peculiar fancy, but 
all with some attempt 
at expressing a meaning 
in the masquerade. 
Public men who are not 
popular are held up to 
ridicule by men who im- 
personate them in the 
most grotesque costumes 
conceivable ; current events are depicted by 
cars in which Young America exercises his 




WHO WON A PRIZE AS A FEMALE lMI'EKMiNAK 

From a Photo. 



317 

wit- "., a manner that the 
man in the street can 
understand ; and jests 
that are occasionally 
couched in language 
more forceful than polite 
are carried aloft on 
transparencies. Pretty 
"girls," whose large feet 
and mannish stride 
betray the sterner sex, 
stalk along beneath be- 
witching sunshades or 
dance merrily with 
maskers in all manner of 
foolish guises ; and a 
regular Noah's Ark of 
animals, with trousered 
legs protruding through 
the corners of their 
anatomy, march solemnly 
along with nodding heads 
and cavernous smiles. 

At the City Hall the 
procession halts while 
the mayor and his cabinet 
review the parade. Then 
for hours it plods along 
through avenues of cheer- 
ing citizens to a point 
where the committee to 
whom is left the selecting of the prize- 
winners critically scans the costumes and the 



From a 




PECULIAR FAN'CV. 



[Photo. 






n IK WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 



app< each marching hand. The 

ot made known until several days 

has been laid away to 

or other the succeeding 

When the nai winners 

there is generally a howl 

from those passed over and 

mui k if unfairness and bias. 



fact, is merely a " warming-up " for the incidents 
of the night. After dark on festival night 
Philadelphia is aglow with red fire. The streets 
are a mass of colour, reflected from the Royal 
robes, the rainbow hued parasols of the maskers, 
the flags and bunting of the marching clubs, 
the draperies of the gods on the cars, and the 
diaphanous costumes of the goddesses, who 




■■: a] THE " KATZENJAMMER CHOIR 



ORGANIZATION WHICH FIGURED IN THE PROCI - 



[Photo. 



prizes, however, do not interest the 

citizen much. He is only concerned 

with the procession. Kach portion of the 

de represents a particular ward of the city, 

and it is a matter of pride with the spectator to 

cheer more loudly for his own representatives in 

the procession than the next man cheers for his. 

When the different clubs reach the end of the 

line of march each is received by its admirers 

and escorted to the ward from whence it came, 

he procession is repeated on a small 

:id revelry rei.uns unrestrained for a few 

hours, the police, by general consent, 

allowing any liberty to be taken with the 

>o long as good nature prevails 

and nothing radically wrong goes on. 

endid as the scenes are during the day, 
however, they are totally eclipsed by the spec- 
tacles at night. No matter how magnificently a 

nbroidered, by daylight it 

of the tinsel finery of the circus 

than real regal splendour. At night, when lli> 

Royal parade, attended 

rch-bear and preceded 

11 umi nations of every hue, the scene 

is brilliantly attractive. The day's parade, in 



glide along attended by imps and courtiers. 
The entire city goes festival mad — for one 
evening only. A stranger coming into Phila- 
delphia on festival night would imagine himself 
in New Orleans on the last day of the Mardi 
Gras celebrations. The crowds are enormous, 
the scene bewildering in its illuminated 
splendour, and the constantly moving pano- 
rama of colour as the revellers skip along to the 
music of the bands in the smoke and glow and 
glare of hundreds of vari-hued lights is a 
veritable nightmare of festivity unrestrained. 

There is no particular mean.ng attached to 
the festival. No other city has one like it. It 
is bimply the one day and night in the year 
wlvn Ph ladelphia, whose name is regarded by 
the rest of the United States as a synonym for 
sobriety and d gnity, throws care to the winds 
and revels in an atmosphere of jollification which 
rivals that of Paris or Nice in carnival time. 
Tlu day following the annual festival, and for 
three hundred and sixty-three days theieafter, 
Philadelphia is just the " Quaker City," the 
"City of Brotherly Love," o any other name 
suggestive of sober qui -tude that its cr tics ike 
t > call it. 







By Louis Lavier, of Paris. 

The author is a mining engineer, and here describes a terrible experience which befell him 
in an Italian lead-mine. The curious coincidence to which Monsieur Lavier owes his life 

makes his narrative of additional interest. 




APOLEON said that "the rarest 
kind of courage was the two o'clock 
in the morning courage," by which 
he meant that there were few men 
who, being just aroused from sleep, 
would possess sufficient coolness and presence 
of mind to face danger. I am a quiet-going 
professional man, boasting of no particular 
courage, and devoid of any ambition in that 
direction ; but there were fifty hours of my life 
during which I would willingly have exchanged 
places with the most daring of Napoleon's 
marshals in the hardest-fought battle in which 
he was ever engaged. 

I am by profession a mining engineer. One 
morning, some few months ago, my clerk 
informed me that an Italian gentleman wished 
to see me. He was introduced, and, as he 
did not speak much French, opened the in- 
terview by producing from a leather handbag 
he carried some specimens of galena ore, which 
he dumped down on the desk before me. He 



then began a long, rambling statement, the 
whole of which, interspersed as it was with 
Italian words, I could not understand, but I 
gathered enough to learn that he was the 
proprietor of a mine in North Italy, and that he 
wanted my professional opinion on the samples 
produced. I replied in the usual stereotyped 
phrases to the effect that I could not give any 
opinion until the samples had been assayed, 
and that, even if the assay proved favour- 
able, much would depend on the facility of 
working and the means for transporting the ore 
when worked. The stranger informed me that 
the mine was in the province of Milan, at no 
great distance from the little town of Varese, and, 
though no railway ran close to it, communication 
with the high road could be easily established. 
The entrance to the mine, he said, was by an 
adit driven in the side of a mountain forming 
one of the - many spurs of the Alps. 

My client told me that he had inherited the 
mine at the death of his father, and not having 






THE WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 



sufficient capital to work it had come to Pans 

rs before and consulted a mining 

r, whose name he had forgotten,as to the 

Ability of forming a joint-stork company to 

k tlu- nunc. The negotiations, however, fell 

through, owing to some legal difficulties, and 




THK 1ELK LOUIS LAVIER, WHO NEARLY 

: HIS LIFE IN AN ITALIAN LEAD-MINE. 
From a Photo, by Gilbert, Paris. 

from that time to the present day no further 
steps had been taken in the matter. 

1 told Signor Ramazotti that as soon as I 

received the assayer's report I would let him 

know the result. In the meantime, I said, I 

hoped he would not show any specimens of the 

to any other mining agent, and he promised 

he would not. Very fortunately for me, how- 

. he did not keep his word, or I should not 

be relating this story. 

A few days later I received the assayer's 
>rt, which was even more favourable than I 
had anticipated, and I at once sent round to 
the adc - .nor Ramazotti had given; but 

the hotel-keeper informed me that he had left 
and, he believed, had returned to Italy. 

The speculation appearing to me likely to 
prove a profitable one, I resolved to start for 
Milan that night and sec- Signor Ramazotti. 
After resting a day in that city, I pushed on to 
a small village a few miles from Varese. I 



reached my destination by diligence— and an 
Italian diligence is many degrees more uncom- 
fortable than a French one, which is saying a 
good deal. 

I put up at the best inn the tiny hamlet 
afforded, and then went round to Signor Rama- 
zotti's house, but was annoyed to find that he 
had not returned home and was believed to be 
still in Paris. I thought it very probable that 
he had gone on to London to see if he could do 
any business there, but, as I was first in the field 
and did not intend to make a long journey for 
nothing, I resolved to visit the mine without 
him and have a look at it for myself. 

The Italians are an inquisitive and talkative 
race, and as I possessed, as I thought, sufficient 
information to be able to find the mine without 
asking any questions, I did not take the land- 
lord into my confidence — a piece of superfluous 




MONSIEUK I.EVASSEUR, "lie rescued the author 
FROM HIS PERILOUS POSITION. 

From a Photo, by Gilbert, Paris. 

caution which I bitterly repented of during 
many hours of mental and bodily torture. If I 
had stated that I was going to explore a cavern, 
the landlord of the inn would have sent a 
search-party after me when I failed to return, 



LOST IN A MINE. 



321 



and I should have been rescued many hours 
earlier than I was. 

My mining boots, jersey, a small lantern, a 
pocket-compass, and my geological hammer I 
packed in a Gladstone bag. I also had a Navy 
revolver in a leather pouch, for sometimes foxes 
or other wild animals are found in mines having 
an opening on the level. 

The next morning I was up betimes, and 
after a good breakfast caught the diligence, 
which passed through the village early in the 
morning on its way from Varese to Luino. I 
got down at what I considered to be the nearest 
point to my destination, and guessed pretty 
correctly, for I soon found the cave, with the 
assistance of a shepherd-boy I was lucky enough 
to meet. Not even the offer of a lira would 
induce him to enter it, however, and I must own 
it did not appear very inviting, for the entrance 
was only about five feet high, and the inside 
looked as black as a chimney. He ran off as 
quick as his little sheepskin-bound legs would 
carry him, and shouted back something which I 
suspect was Piedmontese for " idiot." 

It may have been the contagion of fear, or it 
may have been a presentiment of coming evil, 
but for a moment or two I felt a strong inclina- 
tion to run after him. But it was too late to 
draw back, so I sat down on a boulder and 
changed my clothes. Having hidden my bag 
behind a bush I lighted my lantern and boldly 
entered the cave. 

When once I had passed the entrance I 
found the roof was much higher — some eight to 
ten feet, as far as I could judge. The floor was 
worn pretty level, slanted gradually downwards, 
and was covered with small stones or bits of 
rock. The passage was fully ten feet wide in 
some parts, though considerably narrowed here 
and there by jutting rocks. It seemed to extend 
into the very heart of the mountain. I followed 
it for some fifty or sixty yards, but saw no sign 
of any metalliferous ore, and I was about to 
give up further search — at least for the day — 
when I entered an opening which led off to the 
right, and, as I imagined it would be only a few 
yards long, I thought I might as well explore it 
before I turned back. 

I had hardly entered it before I realized that 
there was a change in the strata in this part of 
the cavern, and that I was amidst "pay rock." 
Galena was glistening everywhere around me in 
the dim light cast by the lamp, showing both in 
large masses and small patches. But I had little 
time to enjoy the spectacle. Exactly what 
happened I do not know, but I suppose that 
in my excitement I omitted to take the most 
elementary precautions, and did not notice that 
I was standing almost at the edge of a deep hole. 

Vol. xii. — 41. 



At any rate, the next step I took was on thin air, 
and in another second I was half rolling, half 
stumbling down a steep incline, falling with a 
mighty splash into some water at the bottom. 

In a moment I had struggled to my feet, and 
the first thought that flashed through my mind 
was a feeling of thankfulness that the water was 
hardly more than a foot deep. Shallow as it 
was, it had, however, sufficed to break the 
force of my fall, and I was unhurt — scarcely 
bruised, in fact. My lantern, which was fastened 
to my jacket, had, of course, gone out when I 
tumbled into the water. I quickly felt for my 
matches, but alas ! I had been foolish enough to 
carry them in a cardboard box instead of a metal 
case, and the water had got into my pocket and 
the matches were sodden and useless. This made 
little impression on me, for I calculated that I 
could not have fallen more than a few feet, and 
I thought it would be easy enough for me to 
scramble out of the hole and imke my way out 
of the cave. With the utmost care I groped 
round the walls of my prison, and, as my eyes 
grew accustomed to the gloom, I was able to 
make out where I was. I had fallen into a 
funnel-shaped hole of no great depth, for the 
floor of the cave was barely three or four feet 
above my head. But it might have been thirty 
for all the good it was to me. The sides were 
too steep to climb without the aid of projections 
for the hands and feet, and were almost as 
smooth as though they had been faced by a 
stonemason. With a good jump I could bring 
my hands to the level of the sloping floor, but 
there was nothing to lay hold of, and though I 
tried a score of times I only fell back exhausted, 
with torn hands and broken nails. 

When I had tired myself out with futile efforts 
I came to the conclusion that the only thing to 
do was to await help from the outside. But 
whence was it to come? The landlord of the 
inn was under the impression that I had gone off 
on an excursion, and was not likely to know that 
I was caught in a death-trap in this old, forgotten 
mine. The driver of the diligence — if he thought 
of the matter at all — would come to the conclu- 
sion that I was a botanist, and intended to walk 
back to the village as soon as I had secured my 
specimens. There remained only the shepherd- 
boy, and though he might conclude that the evil 
spirits which in his opinion infested the cave 
had made away with me, he would be sure to 
talk about it, and that would lead to a search 
being made. 

It was, indeed, probable that the boy was still 
near the mouth of the cave, and would fetch 
help if I could attract attention. I shouted at 
the top of my voice as long as I could, but the 
sound died away in a rumbling echo and no 



THE WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 



the awful stillness. I'hen I 
remembered my revolver. The brass cartridges 
were not likely to have been affected by my 

d would still go off. 1 pulled out 
the pistol and fired. The report reverberated 
through th and echoed a dozen times 

i fainter, and then died away. 1 
ninutes and then fired two more 
nick su in. 

ral of my friends have asked me to 
the thoughts and impressions which 
h my mind during the horrible 
hours 1 was incarcerated in that 
■ not think 1 could, nor 
.id I if I could. 1 Hiring the 
•. part of the time the hours 
__ d terribly, or at least it seemed 
Strang as it may appi 
d little from hunger and 
thirst 1 scooped up in my hand 
the brackish water in 
which I was standing, but it was 
not because 1 felt thirst v. but 
»imply because I wanted some- 
thing to do. To help to 
time I tried to 
_ ther all the 
fabl La Fontaine I 

had learnt at school, and 
did, or tried to do, i 

led mathematical pro- 
I felt that I was 
ng dangerously near 
g out of my mind, and 
my rescuers inform me 
that when I was taken out 
of the pit I d utterly 

devoid of energy or intelli- 
•e. 
I can quite b this, 

ilui d and 
indistinct impression still 
in my mind that when I 
M. I :ur, the 

gentleman who res< 
me, and the two guides 
my head and peer- 
ing down into the pit, I 
had a kind of feeling that 
they had no ri^ht to be 
there, and intruding 

on my priv, 

Being deprived of all 
it, I knew nothing of 
days or hours, and was absolutely astonished 
after my rescue to learn that I had been fifty- 
two hours in the cave. If I were asked as to 
how that time sped, I should reply that the first 



i PEERING DOWN INTO THE PIT, 



second like twelve months, and the last twenty- 
four only three or four hours at the most. 

I have said that I do not wish to remember 
all that passed through my mind in those terrible 
hours — for that way madness lies — but I dare 
saj a good many people would like to know if I 
had not one comforting thought which supported 
me during that trying period. Yes, I had, but 
it was not religious, philosophical, or ethical, and 
I cite it as showing the curious workings of the 
human mind. I had brought a pair of heavy 
mining boots which came up to my knees. 

They were ugly and 
clumsy, and more 
than once before I 
reached the cave I 
was sorry I had 
brought them. But 
all the while I was 
standing in that pool 
of muddy water I 
could think of no- 
thing but how ex- 
ceedingly wise and 
clever I had been 
to don them, and I 
grew to have quite a 
feeling of affection for those 
boots, fancying they would 
be the means of saving my 
ife. No doubt they did 
contribute in some degree 
to that end, for they prob- 
ably saved me from 
rheumatic fever. 

Of the circumstances of 
my rescue I remember little 
or nothing beyond the in- 
distinct recollection, as of 
a dream, that three men, 
two of them carrying 
torches, appeared at the 
end of a long gallery and 
shouted to me in some 
language I could not 
understand ; and then I 
remembered nothing more 
till I woke out of a sleep 
and found myself in bed 
in a strange room at an 
hotel at Varese. 

The most curious 
coincidence about my 
rescue was that the man 
who saved me also came from Paris, and 
lived almost in the next street ! This would 
sound improbable in a novel, but the ex- 
planation is very simple. Signor Ramazotti, 




seemed like twelve years, the the proprietor of the mine, had promised me 



LOST IN A MINE. 



323 



that he would not go to any other mining 
engineer, but soon after leaving my office he 
remembered the name of the agent he had 
consulted three years previously. He there- 
fore went to him— partly because he considered 
he had a prior claim, and partly, I expect, 
because he thought he might just as well have 
two strings to his bow. He submitted to M. 
Levasseur specimens of ore similar to those 
he had shown me. The report of the assayer to 
whom they were handed was so favourable 
that, like me, M. Levasseur resolved to visit 
the mine personally. But he travelled by a 



away. M. Levasseur addressed me in Italian, 
German, and English, at>d I only stared 
vacantly, he afterwards told me ; but when he 
tried French I muttered a few words and then 
fainted. One of the men got down into the 
pit, and with a good deal of trouble they 
hauled me out and half-led, half-dragged me to 
the carriage which was waiting in the open air. 

My rescuer assures me that for four days I 
was delirious, and he was really afraid my reason 
had been permanently affected. After that I 
began to mend, thanks to the skill of Dr. 
Biancbmi, of Varese, and the kind nursing of 




■THEV HALK-LEU, HALF-DKAUGED ME TO THE CARRIAGE WHICH WAS WAITING 



different route — the St. Gothard line — and 
stayed at Luino. 

From there he came on to inspect the mine, 
and very wisely brought a couple of guides 
with him, well provided with torches and cords. 
They had not proceeded far aown the cave 
when they heard low moans. It took them 
some time to find where the sound came from, 
and when at last they did discover me I looked 
so gaunt, weird, and wild that the superstitious 
Italians were almost qn the point of running 



my preserver. But it was three weeks before 
I had anything like recovered the shock to my 
nervous system. 

I have only to mention the last and crowning 
act of M. Levasseur's kindness. After we re- 
turned to Paris he formed a small syndicate 
of capitalists to work Signer Ramazotti's mine, 
and then turned over the whole management of 
what bids fair to be a very profitable speculation 
to me. He said he thought the mine owed me 
that revenge ! 




There is a tiny island in the Pacific which Nature seems to have set aside as a birds' paradise. Countless 
millions of birds of various species are to be found dwelling amicably side by side, presenting a most 
extraordinary spectacle, as will be seen from the striking photographs, taken by J. J. Williams, 

Honolulu, T.H., which accompany this article. 




THINK that there must be nearly 
a million birds shown in the photo- 
graph of a Pacific bird -paradise 
oduced on the next page, but 
nyone of a statistical turn of 
min after due consideration, that there are 

million albatrosses in the snap-shot I shall 
him. To enumerate the birds is, I 
. a physical and mental impossibility, 
who looks upon such a picture must be 
content with an approximation of numbers and 
not with accuracy. 

That which is shown, however, is but a small 
of the whole. If there be a million in this 
single picture, what must there be, in number of 
birds, throughout this paradise ? Xot yet has any- 
one risen to suggest the total. Those who have 
i fortunate enough to visit Laysan Island, 
on which these creatures of the air live and 

%g red at the sight, and 

have returned to tell an almost unbelievable 

i little place less than six miles square, 

3 do not fear the approach of 

man, and from which eggs are taken by the 

barrow-load. It is a place which Nature seems 

part for one specific purpose, where 

thousands of birds sacrifice their lives nightly 

flapping in vain combat with the brilliancy of a 



lone lighthouse, and where the albatrosses are 
so select in their tastes that black will not 
consort with white. 

YVest-nor'-west from Hawaii a distance of 
eight hundred miles lies this little island, sur- 
rounded by a coral reef, with its highest point 
about forty feet above sea-level. The island is 
oval in shape and has the usual lagoon of 
brackish water in the centre. By digging a few 
feet in any part of it water is to be found, 
although all is more or less tainted. The place 
is so far out of the track of ordinary traffic that 
few people have visited it, and the occasional 
stranger is always sure of a pleasant welcome 
from those who so seldom catch a sight of man. 
The ordinary approach to it is known by the 
ceaseless calling of myriads of birds. 

Besides the albatrosses and their brother 
birds of the sea, Laysan is inhabited by a few 
people, mainly Japanese, who have gone there 
for commercial purposes. They eat the eggs 
and sell the natural deposit, which has existed 
there for ages. To the occasional visitor it 
seems a lonely life, but the labourers and their 
overseers appear quite content with their station 
in life, and the work goes on day after day, year 
in and year out, on this desolate bit of land, to 
the accompaniment of countless raucous cries, 



A PARADISE OF BIRDS. 



325 



in the heat of a Pacific sun. In many senses 
this is- a story of wanton destruction, for, 
although the eggs of the albatrosses are there 
by thousands, reinforced each day by thou- 
sands more, yet the gradual extinction of these 
eggs points inevitably to the disappearance 
of the tribe. In one sense, however, the 
destruction is pardonable, for the labourers 
support their own lives by living on the eggs, 
which — owing, I believe, to Governmental action 
—are no longer gathered for commercial use. 



between the two different colours of birds is as 
distinct as if it were measured by a surveyor. 
The black " gooney " chooses the windward 
side of the island, leaving the lee side to the 
white birds. The photograph below shows 
the white birds on their own division of land, 
stretching away by myriads to the horizon, an 
ever-widening vista of spots of white, like an 
ocean decked with symmetrical patches of 
foam. Our next illustration shows the black 
" gooneys," but in much less profusion. They 




From a) 



WHITE ALHATKOSSES ON THE ISLAND OF LAYSAN. 



[P/ioto. 



The bird life on Laysan is, however, not confined 
to albatrosses. There are man-o'-war birds, 
pelicans, tropical birds, gannets, terns, petrels, 
and other species. The albatrosses, however, 
outnumber the others. Known to naturalists 
under the name of Diomedea immutabilis, they 
are here called by the less dignified name of 
" gooneys," of which there are two kinds 
black and white. 

It is a curious illustration of the ways 01 
Nature that these two kinds of birds in no 
way come together; and on Laysan, as one 
passes over its flat and tiring surface, the line 



are about the same size and shape as the other 
birds, but less spectacular, owing to the absence 
of white. 

The "gooneys" are the lords of Laysan, and 
their demesne is a mine of wealth for the 
adventurous phosphate-hunter. At all times 
these men may be seen at work digging up the 
deposits and carrying away, at stated intervals, 
the millions of eggs laid by the birds. The 
Japanese prefer these eggs to any of the com- 
pany's supplies, and boil them hard with their 
rice, living on them constantly with the enjoy- 
ment of simple tastes. Sameness of diet does 






THE WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 



+^*L 





* 




■?>* 



cp 









D1ST1NCI As IK I1KAWN l.\ A SURVEYOR. 



BETWEEN THEIR BREEDING-GROUNDS 

\Pll0t0. 



not seem to interfere with their state of health, as 
is shown by the active and well-developed figures 
in our illustrations. The labourers collect the eggs 
in a peculiar fashion. They draw a circle covering 
an a< re or so, and from such a circle collect the 
ggs daily in wheelbarrows until the supply is 
and wheel them to a railway in the 
middle of the island, wh re they are placed on 



trucks and carried off to the company's camp. 
In one of our illustrations may be seen not 
only the wheelbarrows but a train of loaded 
cars, for which the motive power is supplied by 
a sleepy mule. This picture, with srveral 
others, illustrates the wonderful tameness of 
the birds. Here we li d them nesting and 
preening their feathers within a few feet of the 




. \TkaordinakY TAM6NE.SS OP THE BIRDS 



iri.0 0. 



A PARADISE 01- BIRDS. 



327 




COLLECT P. OR THE LABOURERS. 



{Photo. 



children and the train. The size of the eggs 
can easily be estimated from their surroundings. 
When one lot of eggs is collected the labourers 
move to another area and the collection con- 
tinues daily. 

Thick as the birds are above ground, it is 
estimated that ten times as many are to be 
found under the surface. The island is honey- 
combed with the nests of the mutton bird, 
these subterranean homes being shown in one 
of our illustrations, with the "squabs" at 



the entrance to the burrow. The old birds 
come out just before sunset darkens the island, 
and when darkness comes on are not seen till 
the next evening. Thousands are killed nightly 
by driving against the lighthouse when the light 
is burning. The squabs are said to be good 
eating, and are exported to Australian and 
London markets by way of New Zealand, this 
being one of the departments of the company's 
business which brings in considerable profit. 
The game birds are many, but he who likes 




Frvni a] 



ANOTHER VIEW OF THE GUAM) DEIOSITS. 



[Photo. 






THE WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 




birds lends, of course, special interest 
to the island life. Different in plumage 
and varied in cries, they are both 
picturesque and noisy, the island at 
times being a babel of bird-calls, in 
which the v naturalist should take a 
keen delight. Nature arranges her 
seasons with the sea-birds so that they 
will not clash with each other, and 
manages to make the different species 
live here in pleasant companionship. 
One of our illustrations, for example, 
shows albatrosses mating, with a 
neighbouring man-o'-war hawk on her 
nest — a pretty picture of real content. 
This is not to say that fights are of 
rare occurrence. It is no unusual 
thing for a hawk and a booby to 
quarrel over a fish, and commence in 
mid-air a battle which is fought with 
desperation until the combatants fall 



: TON BIRD, 
ir 1 H I- ENTRANCE 
From a] TO THE BURROW. [Photo. 



to carry a gun finds no need for it 
here. The camp is supplied with 

:ie by a method interesting in its 
very simplicity. A string is tied to the 
dining-room door and a few crumbs 
are placed on the floor, which the 
marked game scramble with avidity to 
capture. Then comes the supreme 
moment when the string is pulled by 
the practical Laysan sportsman, and 
the birds are caught in a bunch. It 
is like going fishing when fish are to 
be caught without any trouble. There 
is no fun in it, and the inhabitants of 
Laysan, living as they do with so many 
denizens of the air in fearless proxi- 
mity, indulge in this small enjoyment 
only when the inner man demands a 
change of diet. 

Besides the sea-fowl and the game- 
birds, several species of canaries are 
native to the island. Some feed on 
insects and others on grain, and all 
are so tame that they can be caught 
simply by putting a hat over them. 
The insect canary is a positive nui- 
sance, as it alights on the face, hands, 
and other parts of the body with an 
indifference that at first occasions 
surprise and then annoyance. The 
presence of these different classes of 




From a] 



BIRDS FOR THE LARDER. 



U'/ioto. 



A PARADISE OF BIRDS. 



329 



to the ground. Such antagonism finishes in 
victory for one and death to the other. 

The vegetation on the island consists of a 
native palm and strong grasses seeded from 
Australia and India. The absence of foliage is, 
of course, monotonous, and there is nothing on 
the island, except the structures built by the 
company, to afford protection from the sun. 



control of phosphate deposits are allowed to 
ship and sell the products of such islands, 
as they have been allowed for very many 
years, a problem arises which is difficult 
to solve without Governmental interference. 
In the Farallones, some thirty miles west 
of the Golden Gate, , the business of col- 
lecting eggs from these natural rookeries is in 



From a) 




ALBATKOSSES AND MAN-0 -WAR HAWK NESTING SIDE BY SIDE. 



Photo. 



Near the water's edge the hair seal and turtle 
can be found in abundance, and many of these 
are of considerable size. An alderman might 
discover some prospect of gastronomic happi- 
ness in the presence of these turtles, but the 
labourer on the island finds little in them to 
stimulate his appetite, for the flesh is coarse 
and oily. The seals, too, are of little suc- 
culence. 

One of the great dangers threatening the bird 
colonies of the world is the destruction of eggs 
such as that already mentioned, and it is of 
interest to note that the Government of the 
United States, looking to the future, is doing 
all in its power to prevent such destruction in 
its possessions. When great companies in 



the hands of Italians and Greeks, and the 
number of eggs gathered is enormous. Happily 
the value of the eggs has declined, and in 1896 
fewer than ninety - two thousand were sold, 
whereas in 1854 over half a million were dis- 
posed of in less than two months. In 1897 the 
attention of the Lighthouse Board was called to 
the decrease in the number of birds, and instruc- 
tions were issued prohibiting the further gather- 
ing of eggs for market. The same instructions 
exist to-day in Laysan, one of Uncle Sam's 
latest possessions ; and if this island in future 
should be a Mecca for ornithologists it will be 
because a parental Government has foreseen an 
imminent danger, and has protected those which 
cannot protect themselves. 



Vol. xii. — 42. 




The Man-Eater 
of Lalpur=Arani. 



By C. I.. Gouldsbury, District " Superintendent of the Bengal Police. 

Being an account of the appalling havoc wrought by a man-eating leopard in a group of Indian 
villages. In twenty months it killed no fewer than a hundred and fifty-four persons, causing such a 
that many people abandoned their homes and fled ! Numerous expeditions went in search of 
the monster, but it invariably escaped, until the natives began to look upon it as a demon against 
whom it was useless to contend. Finally, a large party, organized by the district magistrate, got on 
the track of the brute, and, after a tough fight, the man-eater was laid low. 




N the East Indies, and other 
:ntries in which the larger car- 
nivora are to be found, the man- 
eater is as recognised and us much 
dreaded a scourge as cholera, 
ma, or any of the other ills that people 
_ in the Tropics are subject to. 

loubtful whether the most notorious 
man - eating animal that has yet been heard 
of in any part of the globe ever caused such a 
. i of terror in the neighbourhood it fre- 
quented or took such heavy toll of human life 
as the one criminal history is now to be 

recorded In some cases whole families were 
des: while there was scarcely a single 

household in the monster's sphere of operations 



that did not supply at least one victim to his 
murderous rapacity. 

The animal which forms the subject of this 
narrative was a leopard that had taken up its 
abode in the jungle around a group of villages 
in Northern Bengal, of which one, Lalpur-Arani, 
was the chief and centre. This record of its 
unprecedented career and subsequent death is 
compiled from the notes of a prominent official 

*Mr. Gouldsbury writes : " I certify that this story is an absolutely 
true record of the havoc created by a man-eating leopard in the 
village of Lalpur-Arani, in the Ragshyi district of Lower Bengal, 
during the years 1850-91, and part of 1892. The narrative is com- 
piled from notes now in my possession, made by the late magistrate 
and collector of the district, who took a prominent part in the 
pursuit and final ki'ling of the monster. A nominal roll of the one 
hundred and fifty-four victims, giving sex, age, place, and date of 
death, is in my possession, and can be shown to any person duly 
authorized by the Editor of The Wide W< ri d Magazine." — Ed. 



THE MAN-EATER OF LALPUR-ARANi. 



W 



of the district in which the events to ;k place, 
and who formed one of the party of sports- 
men by whom the hapless victims were finally 
avenged. 

The district in question was contiguous to 
the one in which the writer was posted at 
the time, and he well remembers the terror 
established in the neighbourhood by the appal- 
ling number of persons killed and eaten 
monthly by the savage brute. 

The leopard — which soon became known as 
the " Lalpur - Arani Man - Eater " — first mani- 
fested its propensities early in July, 1890, when 
it carried off and ate a little girl of four who 
was playing in a courtyard. Later on in the 
same month it killed a boy of eight and then 
devoured an infant of eighteen months. The 
next human victim was a child killed in 
December. 

Many shooting parties were organized by 
both European and native gentlemen for the 
destruction of this pest, but without success, 
for whenever hunted the wily brute sought 
refuge in one of the many sugar-cane crops, 
which for eleven months of the year are rich 
and abundant. These crops not only afforded 
the best possible cover for the hunted animal, 
but, as they were of considerable value, a line 
of elephants could not be taken through them 
without causing serious damage to the owners. 
So the man-eater defied the guns and continued 
his sanguinary career. 

From January, 1891, to the end of December 
in that year it had killed and wholly or partially 
devoured exactly one hundred persons, mostly 
women and children, and in the following year, 
up to April 6th, when it was shot, it had 
accounted for fifty-four more, thus making the 
appalling total of one hundred and fifty-four 
persons killed within a space of about twenty 
months. 

The terror created by such a wholesale 
slaughter of human beings in one particular 
group of villages may be more easily imagined 
than described. The people were fairly panic- 
stricken. Some deserted their homes and 
sought refuge in distant villages ; others, 
abandoning all thoughts of sleep, barricaded 
their doors and windows and kept on the watch 
all night ; while some of the younger and 
braver men, goaded to desperation by the loss 
of wife, child, or other near relative, lay in wait 
for this demon in feline form, and, when he next 
made his onslaught, attacked him in a body, 
armed with sticks and stones, but only on each 
occasion to lose some of their own number. 
For the bloodthirsty brute, encouraged by former 
successes and now wholly devoid of fear, charged 
boldly into the crowd, clawing right and left, 



sometimes killing one or two and always mauling 
others before making its escape practically un- 
injured. 

By the time the monster had killed some 
eighty women and children the villagers were 
thoroughly cowed and paralyzed with fear. 
They glanced round suspiciously and fearfully 
even when discussing the animal, whom they 
had now come to regard as a veritable demon, 
against whom it was idle to contend, and 
speaking with bated breath as if afraid it might 
overhear them and take revenge. 

In the meanwhile the dread beast continued 
its ravages, practically unmolested, and by the 
end of March, 1891, it had added another 
seventy-four persons to its already long list of 
victims. Emboldened by his further successes 
and encouraged by the impunity with which he 
could seize and devour his prey, he no longer 
confined his attention to women and children, 
but took to attacking men also. 

The man-eater's movements were so amazingly 
rapid that it was impossible to say when he 
might not appear. For instance, on the 19th 
of March, at 6 p.m., he killed a woman in a 
hamlet four miles to the south of the main 
village. The very next afternoon he killed and 
devoured a boy at a place five miles to the east, 
and again the next evening attacked a man in a 
village four miles to the north-east, and so 
severely mauled him that lie died soon after. 
On twelve occasions the awful brute killed two 
people in one day, and on three occasions as 
many as three per day ! 

Except in the first year of its murderous 
career, seventeen days was the longest interval 
it allowed to pass without killing someone. 

Of the total of one hundred and fifty-four 
persons that he destroyed, he wholly or partially 
devoured seventy-two. Of the remaining eighty- 
two, in some cases he left the bodies untouched, 
whilst from others he was driven off before he 
had time to commence his meal ; these being 
cases in which he was seen to kill and was 
followed up by large crowds of yelling villagers. 

The above figures need little comment, and 
it is small wonder that the people, timid and 
superstitious as the agricultural class of Bengal 
generally are, should have become thoroughly 
demoralized and imbued with the belief that the 
"destroyer" was no ordinary animal, but some 
supernatural monster of Satanic origin specially 
sent for their destruction. Indeed, a similar 
visitation, were such possible, would, even in 
civilized Europe, be likely to create equal 
consternation and be calculated to arouse super- 
stitious belief of a somewhat kindred nature. Be 
that as it may, the situation had now assumed a 
most alarming and terrible aspect. 






THE WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 




THE BLOODTHIRSTY BRUTE CHARGED BOLDLY INTO THE CROWD. 



One hundred and fifty-three human beings had 

already fallen victims to the monster's insatiable 

for human flesh, and it was evident that, 

unless some preventive measures were soon 

. the villages affected would speedily be 

:lated. 

Public feeling ran strong ; the subject was 

n up by the Press and discussed in a 

manner not altogether complimentary to the 

local authorities, and the people themselves 

were not sparing in their insinuations. 

But as a matter of fact the responsible district 

officials, while fully alive to the necessity of 

tutting an end to this horrible scourge, were 

■verless. 

They had made every endeavour possible to 

: and destroy the brute, and all recognised, 

and many hitherto unknown, methods for the 

uction of man-eaters had been adopted, 

but all without success. The only plan left 

untr ining ot the kills, which, 

under ordinar imstances, and with an 

•iary animal, would in all probability have 

ful. 

ise unsportsmanlike manner of 
destroying dangerous game would, in the pre- 
sent instance, have been pardonable, and would 
have been gladly resorted to, so desperate had 
the situation b Unfortunately, however, 

one of this wily monsters peculiarities was that 
it never returned to its kill after making the first 
meal off it, a practice which, though entirely 
opposed to all recognised and well-established 
theories as to the habits common to all animals 



of the cat tribe, secured for it an absolute 
immunity from any such attempts at its 
destruction. 

Moreover, as I have already mentioned, the 
hundreds upon hundreds of acres of dense 
sugar-cane crops which covered the face of the 
country was another serious obstacle to the 
location of so active and cunning an animal, 
and one taken full advantage of by the shrewd 
beast. 

Frequent consultations were held by the per- 
turbed officials and other European and native 
gentlemen of the district, and the alarming 
situation discussed in all its bearings. 

Finally, at the suggestion of the gentleman to 
whose notes this narrative is due, a shooting 
party, on the largest possible scale, was arranged 
for early in the month of April, a time when all 
the sugar-cane crops would be cut down and 
only the natural jungle left. 

The party were to be in readiness on the first 
day of the month, and would be summoned to 
meet at the village where the first kill should 
occur after that date, when they would beat up 
all the jungle in the neighbourhood in an effort 
to locate the man-eater. 

They had not long to wait, for on the 2nd of 
April came a report that a boy of twelve had 
been killed and eaten in the village of Arbab, 
some six miles north of Lalpur. 

By the 4th instant all the members of the 
party, accompanied by some twenty elephants, 
had assembled at this place, and early on 
the morning of the 5th they proceeded to 



THE MAN-EATER OF LALPUR-ARANI. 



333 



beat up the jungle round about, but without 
success. 

On the morning of the 6th, no more news of 
any recent kill having been received, the jungles 
around some neighbouring village were tried. 
About ten o'clock, while the beat was still pro- 
ceeding, an old man came running up with the 
news that he had just seen the "man-eater" in 
the branches of a large tamarind tree in his 
village and had watched it for some time. 
Finally, seeing it descend and enter a cane- 
brake at the foot of the tree, he had come as 
fast as he could to give information. 

Not very much importance was attached to 
the. excited old man's statement, but as his 
village was only a mile off it was thought 
advisable to go there and test the truth of the 
story. 

On the way to the village the old native 
informed the sportsmen that his own wife had 
been carried off by the man-eater a month 
or two ago, while carrying home a water-pot 
from an adjacent pond, 

That this part of the country was a favourite 
haunt of the man-eater was evident to the 
sportsmen from the number of deserted home- 
steads they passed, from which the owners had 
fled, owing to some member of the family being 
carried off. 

When the party reached the village the old 
man pointed to a depression of the ground 
under the tamarind tree, covered- with a thorny 
cane growth, as the place where the leopard lay 
concealed, and opposite which was another 
deserted house, where the man-eaer had once 
killed someone. 

Subsequently several other deserted houses 
were found in the village, which covered 
a considerable area, also the potsherd which 
the old man's wife had been carrying when sh- 
was killed. 

The elephants were now put into the cane 
jungle, the howdahs, with the guns, accompany- 
ing the line, the patch of cover being too small 
to necessitate their being posted. 

It was indeed an anxious moment. Most, if 
not all, of the sportsmen present had been out, 
time without number, during the past twenty 
months in the hope of encountering and put- 
ting an end to this ruthless slayer of women 
and children. They had toiled for many a live- 
long day in broiling heat and drenching rain, 
only to return to camp again and again hopeless 
and dejected and with the knowledge born of 
past bitter experience that, even while they were 
hunting for him, the leopard was probably 
adding other victims to his score several miles 
away ! 

But now everything seemed to point to 



success and all the conditions were favourable. 
The crops were down, and the animal, it was 
alleged, had actually just been seen to enter 
this very jungle whence he could not escape 
without snowing himself. No fresh kill had 
been reported since the one they were now con- 
cerned with. Hope was therefore strong in the 
breast of every sportsman present, each praying 
that his might be the lucky shot that would rid 
the country of this terrible scourge, and restore 
peace and security to a people now well-nigh 
maddened with terror and despair. 

The line, beating close and carefully, had nearly 
reached the end of the cover, when suddenly a 
leopard jumped up from almost under the feet 
of one of the howdah elephants. He was 
immediately fired at, but broke back into the 
canes. 

The line was quickly wheeled round and 
surrounded the spot where the brute was last 
seen, and as the elephants converged towards 
the centre the animal appeared again, receiving 
another salute from the same howdah, which 
apparently took effect, for he acknowledged it 
with a growl of disapproval as he rushed through 
one side of the circle and on to the farther end 
of the cover. 

The whole line now started in pursuit — the 
sportsmen so close-packed that no animal could 
evade them — and soon came up to him lying, 
badly hit, in a thick patch of cane, out of which 
they tried in vain to drive him. 

Finally a big tusker elephant was sent in, and 
as it approached the spot where the leopard lay 
the latter reared its body up for an instant as if 
to attack its formidable foe. This so aggravated 
the huge, but usually good-tempered, old tusker 
that, rushing quickly forward, he attempted to 
pound the leopard with his feet, but the man- 
eater, though evidently sorely hurt, retained 
sufficient activity to avoid the crushing blows, 
and after a short scrimmage wriggled itself clear, 
and crawling a yard or two away crouched down 
in full view of all the howdahs. 

The sportsmen, unable to use their rifles 
during the tussle with the elephant, now eagerly 
seized their opportunity. They fired a volley 
into the crouching brute, and when the smoke 
cleared away the leopard was seen to be dead. 

Thus died, at last, the terrible man-eater of 
Lalpur-Arani, meeting with a death far more 
honourable than his bloodstained life had 
merited, and one wholly incommensurate with 
the many lives he had taken, some of them in 
the mere wantonness of his cruel nature. 

The delight of the sportsmen at having at 
last 'achieved what they had so long and 
arduously striven for in vain may well be 
imagined, though at the time it was somewhat 






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in;ir: loubt as to whether the animal 

he real man-eater or not This, in 

•.he emphatic asseverations of the jubilant 

villai nbled in hundreds, was natural 



The skin was not in the least degree mangy, 
as is, erroneously, believed to be generally the 
case with man - eaters, and when cured was 
7ft. gin. in length and very handsomely marked. 




iTTKMITED TO POUND THE LEOPARD WITH HIS FEET. 



enough considering the number of leopards in 
the locality and the marvellous mobility possessed 
by the one in question. 

The carcass was carefully measured and proved 
to be in all respects that of an ordinary male 
leopard of 6ft. 6in., and, except for an abnormally 
large head and immensely powerful shoulders, 
somewhat below the average in weight and 
bulk. 



To clear up all doubt as to the identity of the 
animal the party remained encamped in the 
locality for several days, but no further kills of 
human beings were reported from any of the 
villages, whereas during the preceding three 
months they had been of almost daily occur- 
rence. It was thus proved conclusively that 
the leopard killed was, in truth, the dreaded 
"Man-Eater'" 



Zfifhti7U/Snou)i>>tiK ftackieb 




From a Photo. by\ [Dr. C. H. Scott. 

By Wm. MacLeod Raine. 



(7N 



\ 



How the great railways of America wage war against the relentless forces of Nature in a region 
where trains occasionally get blocked for a week on end, and where the snowdrifts are thirty feet 

deep, and sometimes frozen solid as well. 




HE "globe-trotter," whirled across 
the American continent in a luxurious 
" limited " train, equipped with 
palace cars, library, buffet, barber's 
shop, electric fan, stock - report 
tickers, and an excellently-appointed dining-car 
service, knows nothing of the elaborate care 
and watchfulness, the toil and skill, and even 
heroism, which are necessary to make his journey 
safe and comfortable. The first half of his 
trip is comparatively easy travel, but when 
he reaches the foothills west of Denver the 
utmost diligence is required on the part 
of the railroad employes to avoid accidents 
on the steep mountain divisions. Especially is 
this true in the depth of winter, when the heavy 
snows and drifting winds combine to make 
transportation almost impossible. 

It sometimes happens that the mountain 
towns of Colorado are cut off from communica- 
tion with the rest of the world for nearly six 
months of the year. Then hardy men don 
their snow-shoes and venture across the blizzard- 
swept mountains to carry the mails and the 
necessities of life to the inhabitants of these 
mining camps. The railroads, too, take up the 
challenge of grim Winter, and go forth with all 
the implements of modern science and all the 



ancient courage and endurance of die Anglo- 
Saxon race to conquer the rugged snow-king. 

Time was when the railroads, even with the 
best intentions in the world, would have been 
unable to face such a task successfully, but 
modern science has furnished a weapon suffi- 
cient even for the arduous work they have to 
undertake. The old-fashioned snow-plough 
was simply an immense plough-shaped wedge 
attached to the front of an engine to clear away 
the snow. Such a device is well fitted to cope 
with the light falls customary in ordinary 
climates, but in the grim fastnesses of the 
Rockies it was found to be totally inadequate. 
To take its place there was constructed what 
used to be known as a " gouger," which was 
simply a box car with a great curved flat scraper 
in front, fitted with hinged side - wings that 
could be opened to widen the path. When 
the " gouger " attacked a close pack of snow, 
heavily banked together, the plough was wont 
to back away a mile or so after each attack, and 
then, with throttle thrown wide open, to dash 
forward at the obstruction. This was repeated 
again and again, until at last the drift was 
conquered. Occasionally, however, it happened 
that a snow-bank, soft externally, hardened to 
an iceberg farther from the surface. In such 






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>kjrt* 







•Is* ! !' 

i Fin 







> IST-OFFICE OF A SNOWF.D-UP VILLAGE. 

From a Photo. 



:se disaster followed. Then from the broken 
machine in the snow-bank brave men were dug 
i iut by their comrades, dead or dying. At 
Truckee, California, twenty-five years ago, eight 
engines " bucked " headlong into a slide pack, 
and from the debris less than one-half of their 
crews came forth uninjured. 

radays, however, every Western railroad 
is equipped with a large force of snow-fighters. 
Rotary snow-ploughs, and 
men who know how to 
run them, can cut their 
way through drifts that in 
the early days of Western 
railroading would have 
resulted in complete 
blockad The rotary 

snow-plough is one of the 
marvels of the modern 
railroad, and it is a liberal 

• ation in the art of 
_ r hting to see one 

'.hem eating its way 
through a white drift that 
threatens to cut off com- 
munication between East 
and West. Many of the 
Rocky Mountain passes 
form a constant menace 
to train crews. Nearly 
all the Wyoming and 
Colorado lines encounter ^S^P 8 



at times serious blizzards 
which necessarily delay trains 
and would hold them storm- 
bound for weeks and months 
were not the most careful pre- 
cautions taken to keep them 
from getting stopped. At the 
top of the Great Divide, where 
the elements have full 'sway, 
the storms are of the worst. 
Boreas Pass, in Colorado, is 
a case in point. As early as 
September the snows are fall- 
ing at Boreas, and they con- 
tinue to fall well on into May. 
Occasional storms occur in 
the midsummer months, but 
these are of no serious import 
compared with the heavy 
winter snows. 

Only a few railroad men 
live at Boreas, and it is no 
uncommon thing for them to 
get up in the morning and 
find themselves buried. The 
one store is usually at the end 
of a tunnel cut through an 
immense snowdrift. Snow at Boreas does not 
merely fall ; it rages. It is blown about in 
swirls and eddies, and is for ever forming new 
drifts as treacherously as a river that is con- 
stantly shifting the sond-banks of its mouth. 
These drifts are not little affairs that will barely 
cover a fence. They are piled ten, twenty, and 
thirty feet high, and they spring up in a night. 
To a "tenderfoot " it would seem impossible 







DIFFICULTIES — TAPPING THE WIRES OF A BURIED POLE UNDER A 

THIRTY-FOOT SNOWDRIFT. \Dr. C. H. I. ot!. 



FTGHTING SNOW IN THE ROCKIES. 



137 



I 




From a Fhoto. by 



A KOTAI'Y PLOUGH AT WORK. 



[Dr. ('. II. Scott. 



to plough a way through these drifts at Boreas, 
but when a huge rotary snow-plough comes 
whirling up the track with three or four engines 
pushing vigorously behind it the " tenderfoot " 
reserves his decision. He is still inclined to 
favour the snowdrift, but he prefers to await 
developments before committing himself. With 
a rush and a 
plunge the big 
rotary is hurled 
into the white 
mass of snow. 
Black smoke 
pours from the 
engines, and the 
great blades of 
the snow-plough 
eat relentlessly 
into the drift. 
The snow shoots 
out of the orifice 
at the side of the 
plough, forming 
a huge white 
semicircle con- 
stantly moving 
forward. One 
can keep track 
of the progress 
of the plough 
by following the 
advance of this 
rainbowofsnow. 

Vol. xii.-43. 



Foot by foot the rotary eats its way forward, 
and finally it and the engines are buried in 
a huge trench of white. Only the stacks of 
the engines can be seen, belching their blackness 
on the virgin garb about them. But the great 
white semicircle never fails to go forward, until 
finally the "tenderfoot" knows that the drift is 




ANOTHER VIEW OF A ROTARY ON A 

From a] into 



DOWN GRADE— NOTICE THE BEAUTIFUL ARCH OF SNOW HURLED 
THE AIR BY THE MACHINE. [PkotO. 






nil' WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 



mquered. When the regular " Overland 

,; few hours later, the 

iot kn« he battle that has 

I y travel through a canyon of 

but they have no idea 

tremendous force required to cut this 

of the continent. So 

in their Pullmans all unconscious, 

ilroad men at the next siding ahead 

id gird up their loins for the next 



the unused road, each hour bringing new- 
menaces to railroad men and passengers alike. 
The rotary is such a simple device that one 
wonders the principle did not occur to someone 
before. It is in effect a great revolving auger 
carried in a protecting shield. It looks like 
a wrecking -car, inside of which is the engine 
that works the " eater." The machine has 
for an end a great wheel in a circular 
shell, with a square-cut guard in front. This 




SHOWING THE POWERFUL SCKEW-PLOUGH WHICH EATS INTO THE SNOW. [Photo. 



battle, which they know Boreas will be prepa 
them in a few hours. 
The experiences at Boreas during a hard 
winter are duplicated at many other railroad 
ky Mountains, to sav nothing 
-eat stretches at lower altitudes which have 
always been the favoured haunts of snowdrifts 
which give railroad men great trouble. It 
; the une.x: ment at these points that 

lends such a serious aspect to the situation. At 
the passes over the Great Divide railroad men 
are prepared for trouble, and consequently 
serious bl< few ; but when word 

comes that a train has failed to fight its way 
through the drifts one hundred, or perhaps two 
hundred, miles from the nearest available rotary- 
plough, th* : risternation. To get r. rotary- 
plough to the blockaded train takes time, and 
in the meantime the drifts are accumulating on 



wheel has oblique-cutting flanges, which bore 
into the banks of snow, whirling like a steamer's 
screw propeller. The diameter of the wheel is 
about twelve feet, and the flanges may be so 
adjusted as to be turned in either direction. 
Behind the wheel are twelve radial conical 
tubes, each containing a slot with a blade. The 
snow falls through tubes to the rear of the 
auger, which discharges the snow r like a great 
fan. Behind the propelling engines come the 
tender car, *"he repair car, and cars containing 
the shovellers and their tools. With ice-cutters 
and flanges going, the plough attacks the snow 
and eats it with a roar. Streams of snow-chips 
are flung in an oblique cascade far back from 
the track. If the snow is light and not more 
than four feet deep, the rotary can plough 
through it at a rate of about twelve miles an 
hour. 



FIGHTING SNOW IN THE ROCK U.S. 



339 




From a Photo. by\ 



KOTARV BURIED UP TO ITS CHIMNEY IX 



BAD DRIFT. 



[Dr. C. //. Scott. 



A rotary is often sent ahead of a passenger 
train to open the way for it, and in this event 
the passenger, delayed while the rotary is 
" bucking " its way through bad drifts, some- 
times has to keep moving alternately backwards 
and forwards to prevent the snow from banking 
up and holding the wheels fast. Meanwhile the 
plough is valorously attacking the icy snow-pack 
which has filled the " cut," and if it is not 
entirely buried 
the rotary will 
probably go 
through faster 
than a walk. But 
if its outlet is 
shut off by snow, 
as sometimes 
happens, the 
gang of shovel- 
lers is called 
forward and set 
to work. Per- 
haps the cold is 
extreme and a 
blizzard is blow- 
ing, so that the 
men can work 
only in short 
relays. They are 
then sent back 
for a rest and re- 
galed with food 
and hot coffee, 
while another 




From a] SHOVELLERS at work clearing away an avalanche. 



gang goes to the front. The men work tier 
above tier, the snow being thrown up from one 
bank to another. Sometimes it has to be 
thawed by a steam hose from an engine before 
the shovellers can work ; or, again, the wind 
sends it sliding back in drifts like sand. Often 
" cuts " have to be opened a dozen times, for 
the reason that they fill up almost as soon as 
they are dug out. It may happen, too, that the 

snow is packed 
into an icy mass, 
i mpenet r a ble 
either to shovel 
or plough. Then 
drills are set to 
work and, with 
giant powder, 
whole drifts are 
loosened. On 
the other hand, 
the snow may be 
very deep and 
soft, in which 
ease men tread 
it down so that 
the plough can 
fling it out. The 
wheels of the 
train occasion- 
ally do not grip 
the rails, but run 
some inches 
above them. In 
this case the ice 



[P/wto. 






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red and the machine runs bark 
irwards till the grip is again firm. 
ins and snowdrifts, bad as they 
not the only difficulties with which the 
I nun have to contend. From the 
main sides .1 ;reat masses of snow- 

down upon the track. These 
her in their descent boulders. 
. n tree-trunks. The flanges of 
■..irking at terrific speed, bite into a 
lite brought down by the snow, and 
Then, in the biting cold, with 
whirling about them in eddies, the 




ADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY — THESE I 

', THE LINE IN DANGKKOI s LO< M.l'l 

-ubstitute another blade, working 
:th a patient courage and endurance 
which is very nearly akin to heroism. 

The wint r ot 1898 — 99 was the worst known 

in the for many years. Nearly all 

_ towns among the mountain-, such 

as Ward, Aspen, and Breckenridge, were isolated 

I for months. At Breckenridge 

Ward no attempt was made to keep the 

' ienr < f snow, but tunnels were run 

under it to the The three principal 

lines of Colorado the Denver and 

lie Colorado Midland, and the 

5 uthern — all made herculean 

efforts to keep their tracks open, as did also the 



great trans-continental lines to the north. Gangs 
of shovellers and many snow-ploughs were kept 
constantly at work. Often rotaries worked up 
from different sides of the pass or the drift, 
until after a long night's battle with the enemy 
they came at last nose to nose in the middle of 
the - *' cut." 

Trains may be blocked for days or, as has 
occasionally happened, for weeks, and in such an 
event provisions run low and the passengers 
have to be provided for. In these unsettled 
mountainous stretches, where there is not a 
ranch-house within miles, the situation is not 

exactly pleasant even to 
die passengers. They 
are face to face with the 
possibility of starvation, 
but it is to the credit of 
the energetic Western rail- 
road managers that the 
possibility does not be- 
come a probability. 
Strenuous exertions are 
made to forward provi- 
sions by rail to the nearest 
accessible point, and from 
there parties of volunteers 
carry forward the necessi- 
ties of life to the im- 
prisoned travellers. 

Hundreds of thousands 
of dollars are spent 
annually by the railroads 
of the Rockies in fighting 
the snow. Special crews 
are kept for the work, and 
hundreds of men are put 
on the pay-roll temporarily, 
simply to dig snow. The 
snow-sheds erected by the Union Pacific alone 
would cost a large fortune, and -those of the 
Canadian Pacific are even more extensive, 
running for many miles along the main line. In 
Wyoming and other Western States the windy 
sweeps are protected by " wind-breaks." which 
are simply fences running along the exposed 
points. Along the Canadian Pacific may be 
seen timber " glances,'' which are used to serve 
the same purpose. It is a noteworthy tribute to 
the energy and persistence of the management 
of the mountain lines that, despite the gnat 
difficulties under which they labour, their toads 
show a smaller share of accidents than those 
traversing less dangerous localities. 



i\ ^ EXTKNU I-' IK V AN V M III 

ii s. [G. .V. // 'aterlcnv. 




T was Sunday, and Bullarook Station, 
in the Wimmera, the great plains 
bordering on the vast Central 
Desert of Australia, seemed quieter 
than usual as 



3LONE IIN THE WIMNERA. 

By Miss E. Boucher. 

Miss Boucher was a governess at a sheep-station in the Wimmera, the great plains bordering on the 
Central Desert of Australia. One day, accompanied only by a dog, she wandered away from the station 
and got hopelessly lost. In this story she describes her subsequent strange experiences in the desert. 

camphor scented gum-leaves. I looked at it 
from every side and was supremely content, for 
once, with life in the bush. 

We were two fools — my dog and I — but we 
were happy. I felt in the 
cool, sweet air that I could 
go on for ever, and took 
no notice of time or space, 
till Dingo, rushing up from 
his hunting, seemed to call 
my attention to something. 
"What is it?" I in- 
quired. " Ah ! The sun's 
setting ! We must return." 
But, softly — where's tin- 
track? Surely it's easy to 
find? No, it isn't ! And 
now the sun has set 




MISS E. BOUCHER ttlln WAS LOST l\ I 1 1 1 
WIMMERA PLAINS. 
. From a Photo by Nandin. 



I came out on to the 
veranda and looked around. 
Everyone had dispersed to 
their own occupations — 
and I, as the governess, 
and English, might have 
been supposed to be " put- 
ting on side " by staying 
out of doors ; " putting 
on side " being jocularly 
imagined by bush-folk to 
be a favourite recreation of 
" new chums." 

Instead of which, being 
free to do what I pleased, 
I called a dog — a re- 
puted sheep-worrier whom 
I had managed to get 
reprieved — and went off 
for a walk. Now, walking 
is anathema to a native 
Australian, so I should 
not be supposed to be 
out of the house, and 
this thought gave a sense 
of secrecy and flight to my movements. Light as all my interest with Mr. Lessar, the owner, 
an arrow I went on and on, a slim, solitary and as much diplomacy as a Russian courtier, 
figure on the to get poor 

great plains, for ^^ ^^ Dingo out of 

my dog Dingo Ak |j^ the power oi 

was too intent /| AHl indignant 

on flying visits 
to shy opossums 
or loping kan- 
garoos to do 
more than give 
an occasional 
backward 
glance to see 
where I was. 

I had on a 
n e w winter 
dress from Mel- 
bourne, and, 
unafraid of any 
critics, I trailed 
it over the dry 
and rustling 



I sat down on a log 
to think, and Dingo came 
up soberly and put his 
head in my lap with a 
little prophetic whine. 

Would he be blamed 
with losing me as he had 
been with sheep- worrying ? 
This, of course, is a 
capital crime in the 
Wimmera, and it had cost 




Miss RruiCHKK 
/■'/on/ n '''■ ''•'. by] 



in-. c; liisi.li, WHO WAS WITH HER \l on- TIME "I HER 

mjventuke. \R. 1. Shelton, Oxford. 



oversea i" . 
Rivers, between 
whom and my- 
self there was 
a death-feud on 
the subject of 
does. " Rivers 
is a wretch," I 
said, caressing 
1 )ingo, for want 
of something 
else to do. 
" He will be 
glad if we are 
lost — but we 
can't be. really. 
Let's have a try 









rill. WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE 



luii. i red that 

in t stly twilight, with dew mists 

• round us, we were as lost as 
our most deadly enemy could desire. 

We made many attempts, all most mournfully 

futile, to find the track, always returning to our 

tral starting point, till we both felt like crying 

and disappointment. 
.\ or two passed by, hugely 

the mist, but Dingo felt lost 
i and remained with me. 
the moon n 

s emed to he high in the heavens, 

rn. pale light over the white sea 

ew. Who 

- the moon is lovely? 

is istray in 

the if the 

earth it is dread; ul to 

assuming its 

triR i weird 

and horrible lifelessness. 

It has no mercy, like 

al sun ; it points 

out your folly in pale 

and ghostly characters. 

led to me to 

I k at me. I 

am lifeless : you will 

i be the sari 

this point Dingo 
looking up 
at the moi • 
I knew it s oke 
him. 
It began to f< 
chilly too— misfor- 
any sort 
a chill 
id all our ela 
tion h ne. 

whe: - of 

5t - killed cattle 

and lost men lay 

i to 

through my 

id folks found by seeing 
2 in the air over them ; stories of 
thirst, of hunger, and of wandering sun-downers 
' leir sufiferii 

id, with a little gasp of fear, " we 

hon , if Rivers does sneer 

rid ignoran< e. He is only a 

■ man. and he sha'ivt shoot my dogs, any- 

We were miles from the station and in a wild 
itry, where the old ; A mi s is as 





' AT Tills l'i Jl'.T DIM ," M« IWI I II.' 



^<od as a mile" was extremely applicable. A 
miss in .a quarter of a mile in the waste VVim 
mera can land you in eight-foot-high jungle 
of a kind of water-cane, the growth of which 
resembles that of the Cuban cane-brakes. So 
deadly alike is it that one lost may, if silent, be 
passed a yard away, unseen by would-be 
rescuers. And in that lone land thirst, hunger, 
and exhaustion soon silence even the hardiest. 

To find a track in the rivers of mist which 
encompassed us would have been impossible 
even had there been one to find, which was not 
the case ; but the cold impelled us to wander 
about like two forlorn ghosts, till my velvet 

skirts and Dingo's 
long shaggy hair were 
as wet as though we 
were wading in a 
river. 

I did not think of 

anything sublime just 

then, only of the 

moon, which seemed 

an embodiment of 

death and desolation. 

After a succession 

of attempts to find 

a track and signal 

failures, Dingo 

quietly lay down 

at the foot of a 

tree and composed 

himself to sleep, 

refusing to move. 

At length, wearied 

out, I sat down 

beside him and, 

leaning against the 

tree, fell asleep. 

We were in a 
little depression in 
-he plain, but the 
ghastly moon 
would net leave 
us in peace, but 
shifted round and 
shone on our eyes 
till it woke us. 
We were about to move away from its evil 
influence when I beheld an extraordinary 
spectacle. Skimming silently past on the 
edge of the rising ground went, in swift 
succession, one weird figure after another. I 
ga/.ed at them fascinated, while Dingo lay still 
as death. Then, like a flash, I realized the 
meaning of the apparitions — they were natives 
going to a solemn midnight corroboree. 

Now, many people think they have seen a 
corroboree, but I can safely aver that what they 



ALONE IN THE WIMMERA. 



343 



have seen is a comic exhibition as much got 
up for ship's passengers as the Christy Minstrels 
for a London audience. To see a real secret 
corroboree is a different thing as I saw it there 
that night in the Wimmera. 

Of course, the aborigines saw us ; they even 
discussed us for a moment. But what could we 
do to harm them — a girl and a dog that the 
morrow would snuff out of existence ? ^Ye 
were less than nothing to them. On the borders 
of the Central Desert estimates of relative values 
are strangely changed. 

They passed on in single file, and, determined 
not to be again left in solitude, we followed, 
fearless. Even had they been cannibals I 
would have followed ; it was so lonely with 
only the awful glare of the moonlight. 

Dingo, after a few evil 
growls, mingled with the 
horde of mongrel dogs who 
accompanied the black fel- 
lows, while I, keeping at a 
discreet distance, trotted 
after them — for their long, 
light steps would soon have 
taken them out of sight had 
I not determined not to lose 
them. 

There was no exchange 
or amenities ; not a word 
passed. The savages 
seemed not to see me ; and 
to surprise an Australian 
native is beyond the power 
of mortal man or woman. 
Had they objected to my 
presence a spear would soon 
have settled the difficulty, 
but evidently the desert was 
held to be entitled to its toll 
of human life. 

All my fatigue vanished as if by magic as I 
toiled on after the savages. We soon left all 
the wooded land behind, and before us lay the 
great desert, silvered by the moonlight, which 
was now bright as day. 

Evidently the rite had been prepared for, as 
standing about a circle of small fires were some 
splendidly got- up natives, in all the glory of 
frizzled hair set up halo-fashion, with red flowers 
flattened out in it. Some had their long hair 
dyed yellow with ochre. Their attire consisted 
chiefly of kangaroo-skin, the darkness of which 
harmonized with their brown limbs. To the 
women of the party was left the lighter grey of 
the opossum-skins. All had their hair gloriously 
arranged. 

I never saw anything more splendid, or 
that must have taken more time and pains 




From a Photograph. 



to arrange . every hair seemed to stand out 
distinct, like the hinged petals of the crimson 
flowers they had flattened carefully into it. 

The women, so far as I could >.. med to 

have no share in the chief ceremony of the 
corroboree, except as musicians. They w 
clustered at a short distance from the circle of 
fires, and beat out on a sort of flat wooden 
drum a kind of march — tuneless, but in splendid 
time. 

k was midnight. Over the great desert there 
was no mist; it shone like a plain of silver, 
and on its surface white bones could plainly be 
seen scattered at intervals. I saw them without 
emotion or care ; the corroboree enchanted me 
and drove away all thoughts of fear. Men who 
seemed to me of majestic height and stature, 
with hair that was a glory 
and a crown in itself, 
went in a dizzying circle, 
threading their way among 
the fires as they danced to 
the loud, clear note of the 
march. So quickly they 
went that the fires gleamed 
from among them so silently 
that they might have been 
planets moving in their 
orbits. I never saw or 
imagined anything like it ; 
its dignity and stateliness 
were marvellous. 

After the performers had 
had a rest the character of 
the dance changed ; if not 
exactly from a rite to a revel, 
still nearer to earth. The 
men had, in some way I 
could not fathom, fastened 
on them enormous kangaroo- 
tails which stood high up 
above their heads ; and with these weird adorn- 
ments waving wildly, they hopped now in exact 
imitation of the kangaroo, uttering its peculiar cry. 
This was so exact an imitation of the peculiar 
hop of the kangaroo that at a short distance it 
might have passed for a party of marsupials 
frisking in the moonlight — but for the incessant 
tapping of the wooden drums. I was more 
impressed than amused with it. The solemnity 
of it all, the loneliness, and the fact that the 
women took no share in it assured me that it 
had some religious character and was an act 
of worship, as in the ship - passenger corro- 
borees at King George's Sound all the natives 
join in carelessly, and half scornfully, even the 
children. 

Presently, ceasing to personate kangaroos, 
to my great delight the dancers began to 



THE OVERSEER AT THE SKEEP 
STATION. 






THE WIDE W0R1 D MAGAZIN1 




' IHEV DANCED TO I H I LOUD, (II \K NOTE ('I I'Hfi MAR H 



cliant.* This was repeated to quicker and 
quicker time, till it attained lightning speed 
without a syllable, the time was so 

perfectly kept 

5 me day I hope to interest some friendly 
musician to write down the air of that weird 
chant and so preserve it as an ethnological 
curiosity from a fast-vanishing race. 

I another dance the natives sang another 
chant, to slower time and a more plaintive tune. 
It may have been a farewell to the festival per- 
formance, for the sudden setting of the moon — 
which had, though unremarked by me, long 
been waning — left the desert at once a ghastly 
solitude. The natives seemed to vanish with 
the last moon-rays, and I might have thought it 
all a fantasl m had not Dingo gone yelping 

after them, loth to lose his new-found friends. 



* I had never hi . since, of any instance 

heing - having any notion of music among 

themselves. It is, tl ethnological item of no small im- 
portance. - '. 



I stooped and picked up a fire-stick from 
one of the sacrificial fires now burning down, 
and, weeping at being again left alone, Dingo 
and I rushed back to the plain as though pur- 
sued by demons. Compared to the desert the 
plain spelt comparative safety, and possibly 
life. 

Fatigue and excitement sent us off into a 
spell-bound sleep, from which we were awakened 
by the hot sun-rays of morning. The mist had 
already rolled away, leaving the plains strewn 
thickly with great globules of dew, sparkling 
like big, round diamonds. While we stupidly 
gazed around, the sun drank up the dew and 
then came and scorched and harried us from 
our resting-place. Its great heat burnt through 
my velvet as though it were a cobweb, and 
Dingo's long hair hung scorched and matted. 
His eyes, restlessly rolling, sought mine a: 
though to ask counsel or comfort, till at last 
with a complaining whine, he rose and led the 



ALONE IX THE VV1MMERA. 



345 



way towards the scene of the corroboree, I 
following reluctantly. 

The desert lay like a dead sea of heat and 
dazzling light before us. Where had the natives 
gone ? 

Here at our feet was the silent witness to the 
corroboree of the night — a circle of dead fires 
and a broken spear. 

Not a foot-.print on the shifting sand pointed 
out the way the black fellows had gone, and it 
would have been useless to try and track men 
already perhaps fifty miles or more away. 

Yet Dingo was for doing it. He trotted on a 
few yards, then, seeing me irresolute, came back 
and tried to coax me to follow, but I was now 
scorching in the sunbeams. By noon I knew 
they would be stifling, and so, picking up the 
spear, I retreated from the great desert. 

I lay down listlessly in a deep crack in the 
sun-baked plain, thereby securing what shade 
there was. The scanty-foliaged gum trees arc 
no protection from a vertical 
sun, and I had seen the sheep 
and cattle creep into these cracks. 
While the hot, scorching after- 
noon slowly wore away I felt 
neither hunger nor thirst, but 
with the cool evening came the 
ravening of hunger, the faintness 
and desolation of thirst. 

What fools we had been to let 
the natives go. At the worst they 
could but have speared us, and 
by now we should have begun 
chapter one of another romance 
of bleached bones. 

As we had watched the dawn 
so we watched the sunset — and 
the heavy mists of evening seemed 
to slake our thirst as we per- 
force breathed them. 

Dingo, who now obstinately 
refused to obey me in any way, 
and who had, so to speak, dis- 
solved partnership, presently 
began searching around. I got 
up hungrily, th nking that per- 
haps the natives' dogs had left a 
bone or two, and quite prepared 
tognawihem — if I gotihechance. 

Lo ! what is this ? Hundreds 
and hundreds of little white 
mushrooms ! I gathered them 
eagerly, hy hand uls. I was very fond of mush- 
rooms, but the few I ate raw induced naus a. 
Oh ! the beatific vision of a fiying-pan and 
fork and some butter ! 

I sat down and groaned, not at the fact 
that we were lost — that seemed our normal 

Vol. xii. — 44. 



stHe — but that we could not fry the mush- 
rooms. 

Dingo howled. Mushrooms did not matter 
to him, but he habitually took a gloomy view 
of things, owing to a prophetic insight into the 
overseer's evil intentions with regard to him. I 
took his beautiful head on my Ian and tried to 
comfort him. I promised him that in the event 
of our chancing on any sheep he should round 
them up into a mob, if he would only stop 
short of rushing into the compact mass and 
worrying a selected quarry. 

Dingo understood, and readily promised with 
his eyes. He was a most lovely dark sable collie. 
How he chanced amongst the useful but non- 
descript curs of the Wimmera I do not know. 
Rivers regarded him as the deadly nightshade 
of the country ; and Dingo knew this and kept 
close by me, sharing even misfortune rather 
than be met alone on the station. 

Soon between us and the fast-sinking sun 







l.o ! WHAT Is THIS '. 



there came some black specks at a distance, 
which, rapidly approaching, showed us some of 
the carrion-crows of the Wimmera making their 
way to us. 

Dingo danced with fury as they came near 
and hovered, cawing, above us, wheeling in 






i ill w [DE world MAGAZINE. 



rcles till their wicked white eyes sei med 
almost within reach. 

1 stood up and waved the spear at them, to 
which they replied by flying still closer, as 
though to inspect their possible prey. 

\ ■ g frightens a Wimnera crow. They 

are reputed to be the very messengers of death 

,\\k\ desolation. From my intimate knowledge 

leir boldness and strange, unfamiliar courage 

1 was afraid that they might attack my eyes, for 

arms are weak 

t h e i r 

idly patience 

I cunning. Bui 

Dingo, also a 

if prey. 

- a match for 

n. Iging 

an attack, and 

while they were 

intent on me. he 

suddenly jumped 

up and caught 

the I 
rible brutes by 
the wing, his 
° white teeth 
closing on his 
shrieking captive 
like a trap. The 
instantly 
■ iped down on 
him, and it was 
much as I could 
it them 
o \ f w i t h m v 
broken spear. 
while 1 Jingo hur- 
riedly tore his 

I 

The uproar and 

lamentation of 

thers grew 

loud that the 

res »unded 

w 'th th< B fried and beaten at last, the 

black wreti tired to a bush mar by and 

■'• n with shrieks of wrath. 

od Dingo ! Oct another ! " 
lied out. excitedly, as, growling like a lion 
r his prey. Dingo scarce left one feather on 
a not 

The at the bush, when 

silent now, the crows sat in sorrow, and as they 
lenly flew off for a few hundred 
yards he cam k and commenced to play 

about light-heartedly. 

Dingo was a lid fellow, and his latest 

feat raised him vastly in my estimation. To 




I HE HORRIBLE FSRU 1 F S 1:1 I 111- WING. 



out general a Wimmera crow is no contemptible 
feat, as the most hardened bushman will tell 
you. 

The desert soon became like a great black 
cavern, for the moon rose later to-night, and we, 
getting back to Nature's curfew, were soon 
sound asleep. After our varied excitements 
nothing awoke us, neither the moon-rays (though 
we felt them), the cry of the -curlew — that 
ghostly wail that thrills the Australian wanderer 

— nor the packs 
of dingoes or 
wild - dogs which 
went boldly into 
the desert from 
pur plain, and 
whose plaintive 
howling we heard 
in our dreams. 

Both Dingo 
and I had had 
food, of sorts, and 
the mist had 
slaked our thirst. 
Nothing more 
fearful than crows 
was near, and 
they would not 
trouble us till 
daybreak. In my 
close-fitting crack 
in the scorched 
ground I was in 
some degree shel- 
tered from the 
rivers of mist, and 
kept warm by the 
well-warmed 
earth. Everything 
in this Wimmera 
hotel of mine was 
the best of its 
kind and under 
entirely new 
management. 
I did not feel at all miserable or doubtful. 
We should live somehow, even if we were not 
found 

Already the station seemed a far-away vision 
of the past. After all, teaching was a bore. 
The lot of a governess was like living under a 
microscope. The desert was wide and free, and 
Shakespeare's bones would not be less disturbed 
than ours. 

It was sheep-shearing time at the station, and 
I felt sure that, but for being so busy, Rivers or 
Mr. Lessar would have ridden out to look for us. 
Tint what would you? All their wealth was in 
the wool, and they could not be expected to spoil 



ALONE IN THE VVIMMERA. 



347 



a year's patient expectancy for a mere wandering 
governess, who, besides, was not over clever, 
saved sheep-worrying dogs, and put on " side." 

So Dingo and I slept like the dead, indifferent 
and resigned. 

My dread of the desert faded away. In the 
morning we would go into it and vanish, causing 
no trouble, grieving no one. 

" Halloa ! Halloa ! Coo-oo-e-ee ! " 

How silly people are ! We want to be let 
alone ! 

" Coo-oo-e-ee — Coo-oo-e-ee — Coo-oo-e-ee ! " 

I sat up in my crack, with wild, dishevelled 
hair, and, recognising Rivers's voice, hastily tried 
to pin it into some semblance of order. But, 
no ! my hands trembled too much, and the long 
tresses of yellow hair fell over my brown-velvet 
dress in a manner suggesting Art. 

I felt very angry and tugged at them till, 
getting them all together, I managed to pin 



I looked ai Rivers critically. He was a 
young man who never did himself justice. He 
was very fair, with pale, fierce, blue eyes, tall of 
stature and of great muscular power, and one of 
the best horsemen in a region of good riders. 
I always admired his riding. 

"Well," I said, at last, "so you've got the 
grey ! And doesn't he blunder along ? " 



"Well, I'm " 

For a minute or two Rivers's light-blue eyes 
looked out of his blackened and sunburnt face 
in a dumfounded stare. 

Then he said, falteringly, " Is it you, really ? " 

" Will you give Dingo a drink ? " 

He sprang from his horse and held out his 
hand, taking both mine into one of his. 

" Little bits of hands," said Rivers, half t«» 
himself, "and no fear." 

" Dingo, come and have a drink," I said. 

Dingo looked at him suspiciously, retreated 




... »*pi 



RIVEK.S RODE UP. 



them neatly up. Then I was happy, even 
jubilant. I got out of the crack with vast haste 
and had even succeeded in brushing the dust 
off my dress, when the tearing gallop of a horse 
ever the hard plain sounded in my ears, and 
Rivers, almost black with heat and dust, rode 
up — stopping his horse so abruptly as to throw 
the animal on his haunches. 



behind me, and then, loping off, was soon lost to 
sight. 

" It was lucky for me you were riding this 
way," I said, taking my hat from the branch of a 
tree-shrub and dusting it ere I put it on. 

" What do you mean ? " said Rivers, wonder- 
ingly. 

"What I say! Considering you are all so 






THE WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 



I could not expect to see anyone from the 

Ml." 

"Good heavens ! " 

" Put me on the track before you go." 

"Why, before you ride home. I'll walk fast." 
•• l ke some brandy," said Rivers, still 

staring at me in amazement. 

1 declined, wondering why he had brandy 



" If you will kindly show me the track," 1 
again said, diffidently. 

" Here they come," said Rivers, who had not 
been listening to me, only holding my hands 
tightly, as though he feared I should melt away 
into air. 

The sound of galloping horses over the plain 
came tumultuously nearer. 

I stood with Rivers - to his big iron-grey 




111 II TKEY O IMF., s A 1 1 1 RIVERS. 



with him in the morning, for most native 
ralian young men are very temperate by 
choii 

"Don't let me hinder you," I said, at 
length, to break a long silence and that awful 
star 

•Hinder 1. ' he burst out. "Why, I'm 
here to look for you, with seventy men — all we 
could muster from the neighbouring stations. 
Not a man would be left behind. And the 
— Ha, ha ! And Rivers, who loved 
horse, laughed loud and long as he 
thought of his scratch-mounted regiment. 

I thought it was a joke, and laughed too, 
pleased that he was not angry at the shearing 
getting neglected. 



horse, and as the men rode up some of them, 
not catching sight of me in their haste, called 
out, " Any track ? " " Any news ? " then sank 
into a sudden leaden silence on catching sight 
of me, staring at me as Rivers had done. 

As they came pouring up I felt as if in a 
dream. So much kindness, so much zeal, so 
much interest and trouble ungrudged — and all 
for me ! I felt unworthy of it all, and could 
only console myself for my folly, as I rode 
home with Rivers at the head of this regiment 
of bush cavalry, by thinking that out of the 
goodness of their hearts these noble fellows 
would have mounted and searched to the very 
farthest horizon of the Wimmera in order to 
cheat the desert of its prey. 



LOG-ROLLING. 



By Charles E. Simmonds. 

This is not a disquisition on the gentle art beloved of politicians and place-hunters, but an account of a 
very interesting and lucrative Indian industry— so profitable, in fact, that it is a strict Government monopoly. 




MAGINE a steep, rocky defile, with 
a rapid, roaring torrent at its base, 
upon the breast of which huge logs 
—trunks of mammoth trees shorn of 
their branches and cut into lengths 
— are being carried swiftly along, over enormous 
projecting boulders, down sudden declivities, 
appearing and disappearing like tossing straws, 
but always travelling onward until they pass out 
of sight into the hazy distance. 

The scene is the Higher Himalayas, and the 
logs and planks are 
trees felled in the 
forests and thence slid 
into a mountain tor- 
rent to be carried away 
to the main stream 
situated a considerable 
distance below. Along 
this, for about a hun- 
dred miles, their pro- 
gress continues swift 
and adventurous. This 
is " log-rolling " as the 
term is understood in 
the Forestry Depart- 
ment of the Govern- 
ment of India — and a 
very lucrative business 
it is. 

The work is carried 
out under the superin- 
tendence of European 
officers, who employ 
native labour. The 
climate being a really 
superb one, appoint- 
ments as forest officers 
are much sought after. ~~\^ 
There is also the addi- 
tional incentive of the adventurous character 
of the employment, which entails not a little 
risk to life and limb. The officer may 
also supplement his legitimate duties with 
large and small game snooting. As I have 
already indicated, the work itself is of an 



exciting character, demanding, as it does, tin- 
negotiating of difficult country — of which the 
first photo, gives a good idea — the crossing of 
raging torrents when the native bridges are 
swept away, and the disentangling of sleepers 
and logs from the sides of rivers where their 
course is blocked or from boulders in mid- 
stream on which they may be jammed. For sport 
there are such game to be shot as black and 
red bear, burrel (or wild sheep), leopard, gooral 
(wild-goat or chamois), half-a-dozen varieties of 




BAGGAGE COOLIES TRAVERSING A FOREST PATH. 

From a Photo. 

pheasant, chikor (red partridge), frankolin 
(black partridge), an occasional woodcock, and a 
profusion of bluerock. In addition to these, 
one meets on the higher levels snow-leopard, 
ibex and'tahr, snow-pheasant, and snow-pigeon. 
In the summer you may obtain an abundance 
of such luscious fruits as apples, gooseberries, 




ifck 




apricots, peaches, wild 
», barberries, 
1 rhubarb. 
while water 
is plentiful in 
all the f 

ms. But 

in the winter 

re arc 

ten to twenty 
snow 

o n t h e 
ground, and 
then travelling is 
no joke ! 

I let us re- 
turn to our log- 
rolli - The 
mainstay of the 
sti •• I >epart- 
m cut in t h e 
Himalayas is the 
grand d e o d a r 
tree, or cedar of 
in. Other 
_ own on the hills lor shade, fruit, etc., or 
limatization purposes, are the Spanish 
-tnut. oak, ash, and elm. None of these, 
however, are useful as timber, being either too 
knotty or growing too far from a river to be 
floated down. 
1 »eodar sleepers 
the attacks 
of white ants, this 
rty making 
them, in a country 
like India. 

•ly valuable, 
that account, 
and also in con- 
of the 
large demand for 
sleepers on the 
always annu- 
ally constr 
there is little 
for wonder that 
I .- vernment 
in the lucra- 
business of 

in their own hands and keep 
out al This applies, how- 

to land- under their own 
immediate control. Semi-independent 
rajahs usually let their forests out to 
contractors, who can afford to pay 
handsomely for the privilege in view 
of the large profits to be made. 



1111, WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 



A BOUNDARY PM.I.AR IN THE KOREST 
From a Photo. 




The largest deodar tree on record was fifty- 
four feet in circumference, but an old tree with 

a girth at all 
approach i n g 
that size wou d 
be hollow in 
the middle and 
useless. Deodar 
trees are often 
from one hun- 
dred and fifty 
to over two 
hundred 
feet in 
height. 
They only 
attain con- 
siderable 
height and 
size when 
they grow 
on a slope 
facing 
north or 
east, south- 
erly and 

westerly slopes being too hot for them. They 
are cut when from one hundred and twenty to 
one hundred and fifty years old. 

When deodars are interspersed with inferior 
descriptions of pines, etc., the latter are ring- 
barked, and con- 
sequently die off, 
and are blown 
down, leaving 
greater space for 
the more valuable 
tree to flourish. 
An exceptionally 
large deodar will 
yield one hundred 
broad-gauge 
sleepers. The 
ordinary yield, 
however, is about 
thirty - five, thus 
making an average 
tree equal to the 
value of about 
seven pounds ster- 
ling. To replenish 
the forests, deodar seeds are 
sown yearly from October to 
November, and seedlings are 
transplanted in July. 

Boundary pillars of stones 
and slabs, like the one shown 
in the above photograph, are 
erected every here and there at 



A STUDY IN RAGS — A HILL- 
MAN EMPLOYED ON FOREST WORK. 
From a Flwto. 



LOG-ROLLING. 



35* 




the junction of the forest lands with those of 
the villagers, to demarcate the line over which 
no tree-cutting is allowed, no cattle may trespass, 
and no fires may be lit. Forest guards are sta- 
tioned at different villages to prevent fires, cattle- 
trespass, or theft of wood. These are mostly 
hillmen, who are paid from six to ten rupees 
(eight to fourteen shillings) per month. 

The trees are cut either with American or 
native axes, and afterwards sawn into lengths 
with an ordinary two-handed cross-cut saw. 
The men employed at 
all these works are 
usually the hillmen of 
the particular district, 
generally superintended 
by intelligent Punjabis. 
One of these forest 
workers — "a study in 
rags" — forms the subject 
of my snap-shot at the 
bottom of the preceding 
page. All the work is 
done by contract. A 
tree is cut at two annas, 
or twopence per foot 
diameter, and three- 
pence for each log. 
Rolling down to the 
river and launching 
costs about a penny per 
cubic foot. This is, 
however, regulated by 
the distance to the 
river and the difficulties 
of the slide. The work 
lor the pay here quoted 



includes numbering and brand- 
ing with the Government mark. 
Two natives with small axes 
will cut in a day two trees of 
twenty feet circumference each. 
Logs average from twenty-five 
to thirty- five cubic feet 
each. 

The sawing of the 
sleepers, which are in 
seven different lengths, 
costs about sevenpence 
each, and twopence per 
mile is paid for transport- 
ing and launching each 
sleeper. The sleepers, until 
they are launched, are piled at 
the sides of the rivers in stacks 
of one hundred each, covered 
with grass and earth to prevent 
them cracking by exposure to 
the sun, and branded with the 
Government broad-arrow. The annexed photo- 
graph shows a batch of big sleepers being 
launched into a river on their long journey 
down to civilization. 

The great point of interest attached to the 
sleepers and the logs ds the distance they have 
to travel alone and unguarded, first down a 
raging mountain torrent, full of rapids and 
boulders, and then down the main river for a 
distance of a hundred miles or more. 

The trees in some parts are over three 




THE LOGS TRAVEL ALONE AND UNGUARDED FOR UPWARDS OF A HUNDRED MILES 



DOWN MOUNTAIN TORRENTS SUCH AS TJIE ONE HERE SHOWN. 









I'Hl WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 




thousand feet above the river on which they are 
be launched: and when this is the case 
"timber slides"' are cut down through the 
tnd made to project over the river bank. 
Where a slide is very steep, as often happens, 
baulks of timber are driven into the ground 
at intervals across it, to arrest the too rapid 

the logs. 
Where the slope is 
slight, however, hill- 
men are emp] 
who shift the huge 

feet at a 
time with skids and 
props, blasting has 
lently to be done 
to make these slides 
available where rocks 
and boulders inter 



ally, and from seven thou- 
sand to ten thousand logs, 
the latter amounting to 
about two hundred and 
fifty thousand cubic feet. 

The district of Bussa- 
hir, which, with Kunowar, 
adjoins Tibet, will afford 
a good instance of the 
distance the logs and 
sleepers have to travel 
and how they are con- 
ducted to their ultimate 
destination far down in 
the plains. They are first 
either launched into some 
large mountain stream 
flowing into the Sutlej or 
direct into that river itself. 
Down below Bussahir men 
are stationed with inflated 
buffalo - skins. On these 
queer rafts they paddle 
about to catch the 
sleepers ; otherwise at this time of the year, 
during high water, the sleepers would be carried 
away out to sea. It would be useless launching 
them above, however, at any other time, as there 
would not then be sufficient water to carry them 
over the numerous rapids and boulders. These 
inflated buffalo-skins are weird-looking objects. 



The launching 
commences in June, 
and is in full pro 
during July 
and August, as in 
two months 
are at their 
. to the 
melting of the snows 
on the mountains 
In one dis- 
trict from fifty 
thousand to seventy 
thousand sleeper-, 
'aunched annu- 



4:te'^^g^SS<sa^>>^!feyfel- 



- 

m 













I 
V 



9 

I 

^1 



4^^^ im 






From a\ 



ING KOR A KISE IN THE RIVER, 



!/"• ■' 



LOG-ROLLING. 



353 







A "swimmer" with his buffalo-skin raft. 
From a Photo. 

They are very light and easily carried, 
and a man marching with one on his 
hack presents an odd appearance. 
When the air escapes from the skins, 
the fastening on one of the legs is 
loosened and the skin is blown up 
again like a bladder. These men, who 
go by the vernacular name of the 
" swimmers," catch and stack the 
sleepers by the side of the river for a 
modest fee of one shilling and eight- 
pence per hundred. 

The sleepers are launched again in 
November by contract, when the big 
river below is less turbulent and much 
more narrow. The men on the skins 
then take them down to Neila, distant 
one hundred miles or more, inside 
British territory, sweeping up any that 
may have passed them and become 
stranded at the sides of the Sutlej. 
At Neila the sleepers are all banked 
and made into rafts of from two hundred 
to three hundred each, and then raited 



down to the junction of the Sutlej 
Canal, along which they travel for about 
thirty miles to a station on the North- 
western Railway in Ludhiana. The 
logs are treated in a similar way, and 
are made into rafts of from twenty to 
thirty each. These are also taken down 
by contract, the rate of pay varying 
according to the size of the logs. 

At the railway station the logs are 
classed in four divisions, according to 
the knottiness or soundness of the 
timber, and those of the first class are 
sold at one penny per cubic foot of 
their length and one foot in addition ; 
thus a twelve - foot log would sell for 
one shilling and a penny per cubic foot. 
They are bought principally by railway 
contractors for bridge-timbering, station- 
building, etc. Second, third, and fourth 
class logs realize proportionately less. 
Sleepers are divided into three classes, 
and are sold at from three to four 
shillings each. 




From a] 



STRANDED LOGS IN A MOUNTAIN STREAM. 



[Photo. 



Vol. xii.— 45. 



The " White Avengers." 

By J. Walter Reed, of Pennsylvania. 
II. 

The continuation of this exciting story, which describes the adventures of a young school-teacher 

who incurred the enmity of a terrible secret society known as the "White Avengers "—a band o. 

miscreants whose very name struck terror into the hearts of residents in South-Western Alabama. 




! we neared the edge of the swamp 
the moonlight began to straggle once 
more through the canopy of leaves 
over our heads ; and suddenly, with- 
out the least warning, we saw our 
guide, who was some distance ahead, 
■ plunging back through the bush, waving 
rms frantically in the air, and calling out at 
the same time something which seemed to be a 
warning for us to fly. 

As he came nearer we caught the word 
" Klukkahs." and in another moment he 
I down in front of us on his knees 
implored us to get back into the bush, 
saying that " mo' dan eight millyums " of our 
stly enemies had come round to this side 
ie swamp and were drawn up in the cotton- 
field waiting to cut off our escape ' 

While we did not whollv share the negro's 

Jit, the announcement was certainly 

not one to make us feel comfortable. We 

realized at were in a dangerous 

fix again. The gang we had just escaped from 

barred retreat toward the south, while an im- 

imp stretched out for miles in two 

other direction-. Straight ahead was the road 

plantation, in which direction safety lay, 

and her confronted by a fresh band of 

enemie 

A wild idea of attempting to bolt through the 

fellows ahead of us came to our mind-, ; but the 

' the long-barrelled rifles of the 

"A' " and the fact that they were dead 

- to a man, speedily di- 2 -d this scheme. 

- n to a safe distance and then 

taking to our Ik med but little safer in the 

■ nlight. 

Creeping cautiously to ti _■• of the forest. 

and keeping well hidden in the dei p shadow-. 

that what to the negro's excited 

mind h ared a 1 ; t of spectral forms 

in real:' nprised about a score of them. 

drawn up a few yards out in the thick 

_ with their shrouded arms 

the lagoon, and a through the 

mumrr, j r wordless confabs — 

rving enough under the existing conditions 

all of w':, decided that they \ 



about to enter the black forest on a hunt for 
ourselves. 

Recollecting a thick hedge of brush we had 
passed in coming out toward the field, we 
decided instantly to hurry back to it and hide 
until the gang had got out of sight of the spot, 
and then to try again to make our escape. It 
looked dangerous to stay where we were for a 
single moment. 

Then, all at once, we were startled to hear the 
sound of a long, quavering whistle, apparently 
coming from the lower end of the cotton-field. 
That it was a signal to these fellows we were 
spying upon became instantly manifest, for upon 
hearing the sound all but three of them, who 
seemed to be left behind as a guard, turned 
about abruptly and started at an awkward gallop 
in the direction they had come from. 

This incident put an entirely new face on the 
situation. The thought came to the teacher 
and myself at the same time that an avenue of 
escape was now opened for us, which called for 
nothing but a little bravery on our part. The 
negro had meanwhile recovered his " nerve " 
and had crept up behind us. When he heard 
our cautious whispering as to the daring move 
we proposed, it savoured so strongly of a 
" frolic" that he instantly became enthusiastic. 

The risky plan we had in mind was nothing 
less than making a circuit, creeping stealthily 
upon the trio in the cotton-patch, and seizing 
them by the throats in a sudden spring. Then, 
having bound and gagged them — the negro had 
plenty of stout cord with him. used in his 
hunting operations — we were to drag them a 
safe distance back into the forest and take 
forcible possession of their masquerade suits. 
This accomplished, our prisoners were to be 
■ curely bound to the trunks of trees, while we 
hurried back into the open and there passed 
ourselves off upon the returning members of 
the band as the guard they had left behind. 
[| was necessary to do this, for we should soon 
have been overtaken had we merely overpowered 
scoundrels and then hurried on toward the 
farmhouse. Our idea was to get the " Avengers " 
well out of sight and then to doff our disguises 
and make a bolt for it, 



THE "WHITE AVENdliRS. 



355 



Quick action was essential, and we acted 
quickly. Probably three more surprised rascals 



" Avengers 



never existed than those three 

were when they felt themselves suddenly seized 

from behind, a sensation which gave wav rapidly 




to alarm and fury when they were roughly 
gagged and bound, and then hauled without 
ceremony through the dense underbrush and 
clinging vines of the lagoon. 

Perhaps the prisoners realized that they were 
to be given time to reflect upon the evil of their 
lives when they found themselves being trussed, 
backs up, against stout young gum trees, in a 
far recess ot the lagoon, with the gags still in 
their mouths. 

In the dim light, when they next beheld their 
captors getting swiftly into their borrowed 
shrouds and shouldering three long-barrelled 
muskets, the angry and discomfited captives 
doubtless "tumbled "to the daring game which 
was being played. 

Up to a certain somewhat disastrous point the 
balance of our risky scheme worked well. We 
lined up in the cotton-patch, erect and motion 
less, trying to look as much like genuine cut 
throats in disguise as we could. We were some 
what nervous and mighty awkward in the 
ghostly rigs, and incidentally very glad that silence 



was one of the regulations < i the hand, as lead 
ing questions might have resulted in both' our 
literal and figurative undoing. When the long 
line of white-robed rascals filed past us, how- 
ever, going toward the top of the field, they 
. seemed to see nothing 

j^ suspicious in our 

Jr - looks. 

They halted when 
the leader reached the 
head of the field, and 
then all straightway 
began to disappear in 
the forest. We at on< c 
started to shed our 
shrouds, so as to run 
when they were far 
enough out of sight 
among the trees. 

It was at this criti- 
cal juncture, however, 
that our plan seemed 
about to end dis- 
astrously. One loud, 
angry howl reached 
our ears of a sudden 
from away back in 
the swamp, then a 
perfect pandemonium 
of infuriated yells and 
shrill cries arose. It 
needed nothing fur- 
ther than the fury in 
the sounds to tell us 
that our trick had 
been discovered by 
one of the band stumbling upon his captured 
mates. 

We didn't run — we flew. We kicked the 
portions of the stolen costumes which still 
clung to our limbs far out into the field and 
dashed away through the cotton toward the big 
house, two miles distant. 

We could even then hear the gang crashing 
through the brush toward the open, in their 
eagerness to prevent our escape. Looking back 
after we had run a U:w hundred feet, we saw 
their ghostly forms breaking through the black 
wall of the swamp in a score or more of spots, 
and then spreading out upon both sides of our 
path to intercept us by making a wide detour 
through the field. 

It was a regular race for life. Musket-balls 
whistled uncomfortably close to our ears now 
and then, but although we had clung to our 
stolen weapons we made no effort to return 
their fire. 

When over half-way through the field we 
noticed with no little consternation that a single 









Till WIDE WORLD MAGAZINE. 



our pursuers had outstripped their com 
d were almost up with us 
a for a bridge in order to 
ross :• nch, and. while the struc- 
lui - - mewhat nearer us than 

5, it was their 
at intention to 
irer it in time to 
it will be 
ui: 1 that thi 

our pursuers who had 
me out on the right- 
hand side oi the field 
when the hand broke 
m the swamp now 
ind themselves on the 
wrong side of the deep 
nch, and would have 
it by means 
the bridges in order 
_ • back to our side 

After affording us a 

momentary glimpse of 

the leading pair of put 

the moon which 

had heen in and out 

,i behind a large bank of clouds a dozen 
times during the race — suddenly went out of 
: again, and just then we had a happy in- 
ition. We would beat the rapidly approach- 
ing rascals in the race for the bridge and cap- 
ture them when they came over it, instead of 
waiting for them to capture us ! If we suc- 
ceeded our path would be clear again, the rest 
of the band being still far behind. 

Our scheme was to trip up the approaching 
pair by thrusting the long barrels of our muske s 
icross their path in the dark as they came by on 
a run, and grab them while they floundered 
helj i cumbersome uarb. 

But once again the moon, which had been 
playing so important a part in the night's 
adventures, took it u: o i herself to come into 
suht at the identical moment when we had 
thrown our rifles across the footpath of the 
bridge — the identical moment likewise when 
th.- tw( leaped upon the structure 

;.t the oppo ite side. Naturally, the first things 
the surprised rascals' eyes fell upon were the 
shining barrels of the weapons, at the sight of 
which mysterious and unlooked-for barriers in 
their paths they instantly jumped back. 

Without an instant's delay we sprang out at 
them from under tl mer of the bridge 

platform, with our muskets clubbed. My man 
went to the hard floor like a log. The school- 
teacher swung wild, and the blow he aimed 
/glanced harmlessly off his intended victim's 




A SINGLE PAIR- OF OUR PURSUERS IIAH OUTSTRIPPED THEIR COMPANIONS. 



shoulder. In a flash the bony fingers of the 
angry " Avenger " closed about the teacher's 
throat in a death-grip. The boy was sprawling 
upon the platform of the bridge an instant later, 
with the knee of his antagonist pressing heavily 
upon his chest. Then a long dark shadow 
leaped suddenly through the red haze between 
the boy's eyes and the form of his captor, and 
he lapsed into unconsciousness. 

He came slowly back to life some time later, 
to find himself lying alongside the apparently 
lifeless bodies of the two " Avengers " in the dark 
space underneath the bridge, with the negro 
and myself bending over him and bathing his 
face. We found it necessary to tell and retell 
the story of. the fight, so foggy and blurred were 
his senses. How the black man had rushed to 
his relief in the very nick of time to save his 
life ; how it was his powerful arm which had 
landed a blow between the eyes of the murder- 
ous "Avenger" which would have felled an ox ; 
and how we dragged the two limp forms of our 
enemies to the edge of the bridge and dumped 
them unceremoniously into the trench, whence 
we pulled them out of sight under the bridge. 

As you may imagine, we were completely 
fagged after our encounter with the two 
" Avengers." We were close enough to ex- 
haustion before that, but the violent exertion in 
the rough-and-tumble fight had finished us. 
being safe under the bridge and finding a dry 
space on one side of the trench capable of 



THE "WHITE AVENGERS." 



357 



accommodating us all, we resolved to stay there 
until we were partly recuperated. 

We frequently heard other members of the 
band hurrying across the bridge overhead, still 
in hot pursuit and apparently as fresh as when 
they started ; and we congratulated ourselves 
upon having dropped out of the chase. 

Obeying the rules of civilized warfare — after 
first seeing to our own comfort — we gave some 
attention to our prisoners. We bound their 
bruised skulls in portions of their own uncanny 
costumes, and then, as they began to show signs 
of life, we devoted other portions of their dis- 
guises (the negro's supply of cord being ex- 
hausted) to binding their arms and legs and 
putting gags in their mouths. 

We stayed on under the bridge until it was 
within an hour of daybreak. There had been 
no sound of footsteps over our heads for some 
time, and we began to think of moving on 
before the rising sun added to the dangers of 
travel. As we knew the field between us and 
the plantation would by this time be fairly alive 
with "Avengers/' both those who had crossed 
the bridge and the 
contingent upon 
the left side of the 
trail, we decided to 
complete the trip 
under cover of the 
trench. It was 
nearly dry from 
here onwards, and 
would afford us 
much better 
chances for con- 
cealment, Euckily, 
too, it ran within a 
hundred feet of the 
big house after 
bending around the 
long row of cabins 
the negro 

quarters." 

Suddenly, to our 
intense dismay, we 
heard footsteps 
again on the bridge, 
apparently those of 
a solitary straggler 
who had been out- 
distanced by the 
rest of the band. 
In the very centre 
of the structure the 
man paused. It 
was now as bright 
as day outside our 
place of conceal- 



i n 




"he was caught by his dangling extremities. 



ment, and the rascal seemed to have espied on tin 
bridge floor some signs of the recent battle. He 
began to walk slowly about, keeping up his pro- 
menade for some moments. Then he came to 
the edge of the bridge and, as we judged, peered 
down into the trench. Something had manifestly 
aroused his suspicions. 

To our deep consternation, directly after this 
a white-peaked head-gear came in sight over the 
side of the bridge platform ; then the two eye- 
slits in an "Avenger's" white mask slowly showed 
themselves as the rascal strove to peer into our 
dark hiding-place by lying flat on his stomach. 
The darkness was too intense in the little shelter, 
however, or the spy's position was too uncomfort 
able. Anyway, the white head-gear disappeared, 
and in its stead, almost immediately, a man's 
legs appeared, clad in a pair of everyday home- 
spun trousers, the enveloping shroud having 
been caught back on a nail. 

As a rule, to be sure of a welcome, visitors 
should always await invitations before appearing 
in strange places — even when those places 
happen to be the dark spaces underneath 

bridges. Although 
the individual in 
question had not 
observed this social 
regulation, he yet 
found himself ac- 
corded an unex- 
pectedly warm 
reception, probably 
the most fervid one 
of his life. 

Before the man 
knew where he was 
he was caught by 
his dangling ex- 
tremities and jerked 
down off the bridge. 
Once brought in- 
side, his hosts— 
now rapidly becom- 
ing expert in bind- 
ing and gagging 
hostile "Aven- 
ers " — soon had 
stowed 
alongside the 
rascals who 
preceded him. 
had left a good 
share of his white 
garb behind him 
in his rather un- 
conventional en- 
trance ; but what 
was left of it 



him 



up 
two 
had 

He 






rill WIDE wok l.D MAGAZINE 



5 gi gs for his own safe 

It is unn give a detailed descrip- 

>ur flight through the trench. We made 

...-. , it without mishap. Our latest 

aptives were naturally left behind, 

igl we set them up against the bridge sun 

the wet. We had no love for the 

ther were we bloodthirsty. 

:n came up just as we were in sight of 

■• quart* Being anxious to know 

finite about our pursuers we 

climbed a little way up the muddy hanks of the 

ch, and were immediately rewarded by 

e about a do/en of the scoundrels some 

ance ahead making their way into hiding- 

- i the high, thick brush which skirted the 

upper end o\ the cotton-field. By hiding here 

ley would have a pretty clear view of the yard 

it the sin-house and the rear of the big 

nansion- in which, of course, the miscreants 

sed we were by this time concealed. 

An incident occurred when we came to climb 

out of the trench which gave us a good laugh, 

in - ing < h >se to collapsi . 

Where the big drain cut through behind the 

. rters" a large enclosure was formed by a 

board fence, shutting in three sides, and 

. of cabins in front. The spaces between 

•ins were also boarded up as high as the 

We knew it was not sale to attempt to 

h the mansion in direct range of the 

lemies oncluded to leave the 

i in this enclosure where they couldn't see 

nd then betake ourselves for the present to 

' ' cabins. There had been none of the 

■ iks on the place, as it happened, when I 

icle being down at his lower plantation 

the rest of them on a visit to Montgomery. 

I would learn from the negroes in the cabins if 

jncle had returned, and, if so, gel word to 

him privately of cur whereabouts. 

had been a night ol deep excitement 

imong _ They had seen the high 

it into the sky from the burning 

up : and the more superstitious ones had at 

first thought it was the millennium. 

H the chool-teacher's negro driver 

his way to the plantation afoot 

during the night, scared out of his darky wits. 

and had told of the fracas at the inn after a 

1 style of his own- and of the " voting 

with the Yankee boy to the 

This had frightened the blacks in 

"young marstei lalf. Anion:; them were 

some very brave men. These began instantly 

-ganize a posse of volunti m among i 

their fellow plantation hards to go to " young 

mar- ue. 1 hey had started late with 



the organizing, ami daylight found them gathered 
in front of the negro cabins in excited groups. 

All at once they saw three beings who had 
arms and legs, but who were otherwise unlike 
anything human they had ever beheld. One cf 
the creatures was a coal black giant, whose eyes 
rolled as the eyes of an ogre are supposed to 
roll : he had long strips which had evidently 
been torn from human shrouds wrapped about 
his head and neck. The terror-stricken negroes 
felt confident that three ogres wen 1 now trying 
to capture and devour them. The giant's 
two males, while slightly shorter in stature than 
himself, were equally fierce ; and upon leaving 
the trench they all started savagely in a crouch- 
ing run towards the